Drakiden Ruby: A new age
by GeneralAllenWalker
Summary: A new Age reached Remnant and The People of the four kingdoms will have to face a nightmare come true. It will be a time of heroes and Monsters. Ruby stands in the midst of this and she will have to decide wether she was a hero or a Monster. RWBY AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Drakiden Ruby: Into a dark age**

 **So Drakiden Ruby. It´s an AU Story but the alternative universe it Plays in is still relatively similar to Canon Remnant. There are some glaring differences however. For one Magic. It´s a Thing and not just for Ozpin. This Story will somewhat follow the Events of Canon rwby but mixed with new storylines, Villains, threats and characters. Canon MC´s will also be main characters here but well they will in some instances be pretty different. Also the Drakids. They are basicly the main threat of this Story and contary to the Grimm they´ll be actually a threat. This fic will be very veeeeerrry brutal in some Scenes and Arcs. Characters will die, some maimed pretty much Volume 3 of Drugs. If you can´t stomach that than you really shouldn´t read this fic. Btw this won´t be a murder orgy where a named important characters die every second chapter but it´ll still happen from time to time. Just as a fair warning.**

Another silver beam sliced through the ranks of the Grimm, eradicating thousands in mere moments. Beowolves, Ursa, Nevermores, they all fell without making a difference. They were nothing in comparison to the might of the Silver Eyes. The Grimm were destroyed with impunity, the stain they represented on the world of Remnant wiped away by the purity of the warrior before them.

While other warriors might have become disheartened by the seemingly endless ocean of black and white, but not this one. As any attempt of bringing low the single hero who fought, no _slaughtered_ , the creatures of darkness failed. No amount of sheer numbers made a difference, all their hordes were for naught as not one came even close to the lone being.

Any monster that tried to engage her in close combat was annihilated, any type of projectile launched at her was vaporized upon making contact with the silver bubble shielding. The body of the maiden who marched through the bringers of calamity did so without fear, with all the craze and might other mortals might ascribe to that of a goddess.

And again, for the fourth time since the one-sided battle had begun, the lines of the Grimm shattered, the beasts driven away by the being who so generously gifted them with the fruits they normally spread. Terror. Fright. _Fear._

As the foremost lines of the enemy fled, the ones behind them, driven insane by the mere sight of the light, fell upon this source of panic to tear it apart, only overtaken by said emotion themselves. Once the being set her sight on them, the same terror coursed through the hordes, and they too fled before the sheer blinding power.

And amidst this bloodbath, sat the one responsible.

Summer Xiao Long-Rose. Proud mother of Ruby Rose, equally proud adoptive mother of Yang Xiao Long, and proud wife of Taiyang Xiao Long. Undisputed regent of the Rose-Xiao Long household, who ruled her realm with a gentle, yet iron fist. The inventor of the Rose cookie, the unchallenged empress of all sweets in all the world. She was the champion of Remnant, the possible greatest hero of this era. The first person to achieve the rank of Grand Paladin since the founders in the long gone Age of Darkness. And right now, the bane of the Creatures of Grimm.

 _Hmm, what should kind of dinner should I give my babies once I return home?_ thought Remnant's mightiest huntress, observing the scene of devastation before her. She scratched one of her aching eyes. "By the twins, staring for such a long time really itches!"

She yawned a bit and discovered some Behemoths, who tried to bring order back into the formations of Grimm. Sighing tiredly, she hold up one of her arms, aimed at the elder Grimm in question, and snipped with two of her fingers. A silver lance shot out from the tip of her index finger, racing towards the Grimm. In the blink of an eye the beam eradicated them from existence, undoing the somewhat regrouped army of Grimm to make them once again fall into chaos.

Summer stood up and began walking casually towards the whole mess. An Eldritch Grimm, a Beowulf who had almost the size of a Goliath, rushed towards her. The sheer speed it moved with made it appear less as a Grimm, and more like a dark shadow, crushing inferior Grimm in the dozens whenever its paws meet the ground. In mere seconds it had traversed the distance between itself and Summer, dodging multiple beams of silver light with an almost unnatural flexibility.

The moment the beast reached the silver bubble, Summer's final defense, the Grand Paladin ripped her arm up. The ball of light burst open, and the deforming structure coiled itself around the Grimm, entrapping the beast within a prison.

"Impressive." mused Summer. "It didn't die when it made contact with my power. It has to be eons old." Slowly closing her left hand, she watched how the ball shrank at the same rate crushing the Grimm, which she decided to call a Powerwulf, into a paste of blood, vaporizing bones and flesh alike.

"It´s still – Huh!" she let out a surprised shriek when the ground on which she stood began to rumble and shake.

Out of pure instinct she jumped back, the Aura she applied to her feet and legs allowing her to propel herself over thirty meters into the air in less then a second. The wind pressed like a brick wall against her, and she heard multiple crack like sounds in her ears, but she paid no attention as she stared at the thing before her.

Where she stood only a moment ago, now rose a massive worm like Grimm. It's entire body was covered by white bone plates, and from what little she was able to glimpse of the thing's mouth, it had been filled by row after row of monstrous teeth.

While still in the air Summer realized her mistake: She was in the air. She couldn't dodge.

She barely managed to create a barrier of Aura and silver light to brace for the impact, and she just slammed into the earth when the titanic Grimm worm whipped around, and rammed itself against the human. Summer screamed as she felt how the sheer force of the attack pressed the oxygen out of her lungs. Her entire form exploded in light as she unleashed the full might of her eyes against it. A silver wall slammed in the monster in hyper speed, forcing it off the Paladin.

An ear shattering cry trembled the air, as the light swept over the worms exterior left side, freezing the hide and bone plates alike, but utterly failed to damage it further then that.

"It's no good, raw assaults with my eyes won't penetrate deep enough to destroy it. I have no time for something more sophisticated. I'll have to use my Aura!" was the conclusion to which the woman came. The question was if that would be enough, but she had no other option.

Ramming her hands together, she assembled an enormous amount of concentrated Aura, the sheer volume of energy sending sparkles and tremors through the air, as Summer's Aura became visible even to the naked eye. Thrusting her connected hands skywards, she hit the Grimm just as it began to descend on her again.

Summer winced when she punched right through the fatally weakened skin of the monster, plastering herself with blood and bones as her directed Aura tore a hole into it, just big enough for her to not be squashed as the worm's gargantuan form descended. A heart beat later the monster was carved apart by an attack so fast, it could only be seen as a flash of light.

And right between the two slowly dissolving halves stood Summer Rose, cape flattering and a shining scythe in her hands.

"You were pretty tough!" complimented Summer to the corpse, now chirpy. "It's quite a while since I had to use Heillbringer seriously. Isn't that right darling?"

While saying that she affectionately rubbed over the weapon, still glowing from the use of the runes scrawled on it's surface. "Last time was in our fight with Peach, wasn't it? Ah, that was a great fig-"

Whirling around she brought the legendary scythe up ready to block whatever attack. And it wasn't one second too late as a black arrow shattered against the blade and promptly exploded, covering the woman in a cloud of smoke and fire.

This moment Summer noticed multiple things. First and foremost, she had her mouth open when that projectile exploded, and now she had the bitter taste of ashes on her tongue. Also her favorite hunting cloak, which had been dirtied enough already, now had burn holes and black singes all over it. Next she wasn't sure if she had remembered to make enough reserve lunch for Tai and her two little angels back home. Well, luckily she did teach Yang how to cook, so they wouldn't starve, or worse yet face Tai's cooking (the very thought of which made her shudder). And the sun was so nice today. Until a couple of moments ago the big orange ball in the sky had been hidden by bad weather.

Oh, and someone stupid girl was shooting arrows at her.

Summer lowered her weapon to casually snatch a second arrow out of the air, negating the explosive tip the moment she touched it. Compared to her fight with the Grimm worm and that Powerwulf, these projectiles were almost painfully slow.

She could see how the archer, almost a kilometer away, notched the next arrow. She whistled, definitely impressed. Shooting so precisely without a scope over such a distance was pretty much impossible, especially with a bow. This meant that her opponent had either some pretty high-tech eye implants, or was an at least somewhat capable Aura master. She decided to give her a visit.

Summer knelt down to evade a third arrow (she had a pretty good firing rate admittedly) and channeled not Aura, but instead pure energy direct from her silver eyes. Leaping ahead, she practically flashed through the space between them, leaving behind what little remained of a once great Grimm horde, which threatened the entire kingdom just hours ago. To think that the authorities originally intended to destroy the horde through a joint effort of the Valesian and Atlesian armies, together with large amounts of huntsmen and huntresses. The idea alone made her snicker.

Accompanied with the powerful boom of her breaking the sound barrier, Summer appeared before the girl who had been firing arrows at her so impolitely.

"Did no one ever tell you not to throw sharp at people without their consent? You might hurt someone!" she chided the girl, while whipping away the arrow before her eyes.

The woman had ashen hair and golden eyes, she could be considered really pretty in fact. Her assailant's eyes widened in terror upon seeing the legendary hero standing directly before her, especially after watching the utter destruction of a Grimm horde deemed a kingdom class threat. Nevertheless, she reacted fast. Fire flashed in her right palm as she lashed out towards Summers face.

Somewhat bemused, the Champion of Mankind slightly tilted her head, evading the immature attack without putting in any particular effort. Raising her left hand, caught the oncoming sword following the flames, using two fingers to bend the blade which was racing towards her kidneys a second ago.

"That was a nice feint." commented Summer, flashing a bright smile and grabbing the arrow she sealed in an Aura bubble, taking the bomb out to finally allow it to detonate.

The blast of the point blank explosion threw the ashen haired woman a couple of meters through the air, her entire left side blackened and burned.

"And you can summon swords. That is fascinating!" Summer half squealed, continuing to beam her smile at the stranger as if nothing had happened. Stretching herself a bit, the Grand Paladin moved her arms behind her back and created an Aura barrier almost two meters in diameter, moments before a barrage of glass javelins slammed into it. "Say is that your semblance, or have you actually mastered some of the ancient arts?"

Summer frowned when the only answer she received were another volley of glass shards, followed by some more arrows. Sighing she simply waved her arm through the air to create an Aura enhanced shock wave, shattering her attacks.

" _Can't she see that there is nothing she can do to hurt me?"_ she asked herself, watching the woman back away while continuing futilely launching blows at Summer. _"Doesn't look like it. Huh. Guess I'll have to get a little rough on her then!"_

Stomping on the ground, she released a wave of silver energy to destroy the arrows sticking up in the dirt around her, a bit annoyed that her opponent would think she wouldn't notice them. Time to teach her a lesson!

Her frame simply vanished, moving even faster than before. Appearing before the enemy, her right fist connected with the archer's solar plexus, while her other hand grabbed the victim's shoulders to prevent the woman from being blown away, forcing her to stand and take the full might behind the blow. Letting go Summer elbowed the stranger in the face, breaking her nose. The two consecutive, blows impacting in less than a second both stunned the woman and caused her to double over – directly into Summers knee.

"Are you ready to talk? We can continue if you want." No answer. "Oi! I didn't accidentally kill you, or made you bite your tongue off, did I?" Still no response.

The Grand Paladin groaned, her patience dropping.

"Hmm?" bowing down to the unmoving body of the huntress, Summer frowned a bit and poked her into the cheek.

"DIEEEEE!" she unexpectedly screamed, throwing off the act and clamping her hands around the Grand Paladins head, releasing enough heat to melt even iron.

"Now that was decently warm. I even felt it!" applauded Summer, a shield made out of white light laying around her head blocking any harm to her body. "But…" White light as well as the green cackles of hyper charged Aura circulated around Summers right fist.

"Not nearly as hot as my husband!" she drove her fist into the woman's abdomen, finally breaking her Aura and sinking almost her entire hand into her flesh.

Pulling her fists out, Summer took a step and watched her opponent vomit, plenty of blood mixed in with the bile. She collapsed again, but this time it was no act.

"You know." Summer knelt beside her again. "You're pretty unconvincing in your 'I'm dead' play. My daughters miles ahead of you in that aspect. So will you now tell me who you a-huh?"

The woman started to laugh. The blood in her mouth, as well as the destroyed teeth and tongue made it a gurgling, truly bone chilling sound.

"My name is Cinder. Cinder Fall!" And again she began her cackling mad laughter. "It'll be the absolute last thing you ever HEAR!"

And with these words she ripped her hands up, and countless black strings shot out of her arms, hands, and body. They hit Summer before she could react, she was too surprised to put up a defense.

The moment the dark strings touched her body, an extreme nausea ran throughout her entire being. She couldn't stop herself from stumbling, collapsing on her hands. Summer opened her mouth, but instead of words only vomit came out. She could feel something digging into her.

Something incredible vile inside her …, inside her body! It was interfering with her powe-!

Silver light circumvented Heillbringer as it bit through the many threads of Grimm matter, and carved itself into Cinder's right shoulder, simultaneously cutting Summer loose of a great deal of the Grimm Parasite, while simultaneously inflicting an almost certainly fatal wound on her opponent. Disconnected from over half of the entity, Summer was able to muster enough of her power to send a silver shock wave through her body, shattering the Grimm as if it were tainted glass.

Panting heavily, the Grand Paladin stared at her struck down foe. She couldn't remember the last time where she had been forced to summon the weapon by pure need.

A wave of sudden exhaustion hit her, and for the third time she sank on her knees. Summoning something like Heillbringer took a great toll on her body and soul. Legends (and Ozpin) claim it had been weapon of the Silver Eyed Goddess, crafted for her by the last Dragon King. Sounded ridiculous, but given Summer herself was a direct descendant of said Goddess, practically a Demigoddess in her own right, she had probably less trouble believing the tale than most other people.

All signs of carelessness were gone now, the warrior's overconfidence firmly banished. Summer grabbed the hilt of the scythe and sharply yanked on it, and with some difficulty she ripped the weapon out of the Cinder woman's collarbone.

Said person screamed when Summer grabbed the woman by her destroyed shoulder, and forced her to eye level.

"Who are you?" Summer yelled. "And what is your connection to Salem?" There was nothing but the Queen of the Grimm in this world that was powerful enough to block her powers. Her face and voice were deadly serious now. "Answer me!"

"Ha ha ha hah ha." Cinder laughed slowly, even through the pain of her broken teeth and mangled shoulder. "Ha ha ha, have ….. - you decided to look down? Or is that beneath you, oh hero of Remnant?"

Summer's eyes dipped to the ground, and what she saw froze the blood in her veins. They were standing on _Something_ resembling an eye, a single humongous eye. Feeling an immense danger, she let go of Cinder and instead pointed her arm towards the ground, white energy leaving from her entire form to create a defensive bubble, similar to the one she used during the fight with the Grimm horde.

The next moments dozens – no _hundreds_ of black tendrils shot out of whatever the thing was, and wrapped themselves around her sphere of energy along with the Cinder girl.

The tendrils smoked and splintered upon meeting the silver power, but weren't destroyed. Summer was pretty sure she could still make a getaway by destroying all these tentacles in one strike with her weapon, but in doing so she would open herself to attack as well. These things barely survived merely touching her barrier, there was no way they would be able to damage the barrier in any significant way. She would simply re-!

Before she could finish that thought, the eye thing opened below her feet, pulling down both her and the woman, who was now entirely subsumed in black tendrils. She tried to resist, Cinder didn't.

Tremors went through her protective ball, as she was completely submerged in the inky black that was the portal. The prior feeling of vile darkness returned tenfold, and it was almost enough to break Summer's concentration, and with it her barrier. Every sense of time, space and direction was lost as she was moved somewhere. She could feel herself leaving the region where she was prior, the place where she destroyed the kingdom threatening Grimm army. From there, she was taken somewhere else entirely.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The bubble burst open the moment it left whatever dark realm it transported through. And through the dispersing pieces of what had once been a protective body lay Summer Rose. Sweat was running down her body in thick rivers, and she was breathing heavily, her breath coming in loud pants.

She looked around, and froze in terror. The sky, formerly so deep and blue, was now a sickening red. Surrounding her in every direction were lands completely bereft of any life, and instead looked as if they were covered in black, moving paint, so numerous were the Grimm. Even the horde from before seemed minuscule to these masses. The air itself entering Summer's lungs tasted so completely wrong. But that wasn't what frightened the Champion of Mankind.

Before her, situated on a purple throne, rested the bane of Faunus and Mankind. The ruler and goddess of the Grimm, the sworn enemy of both races.

 _Salem._

Summer moved at a speed which made a complete mockery of her previous fight with Cinder. Grasping the hilt of her weapon, she was upon Salem in an instant, swinging her scythe with such inhuman speed and strength, the aftershock alone shattered the ground she was traversing.

The moment the weapon should have impacted on the dark goddess's neck, something hit her in the gut and forced her back, causing her to narrowly miss her target. The dark mistress didn't even flinch. Glancing down, she saw the source to be something closely resembling a dark spear, originating from the ground. Jumping back, she barely avoided being impaled as it shot completely out into the air.

"Is that … a Grimm?" asked Summer to herself, staring at it with raw shock. Channeling energy, she tried to summon her Silver Eyes, but found herself unable to do so.

During her brief moment of distraction, the spear like Grimm bent around and shot at her once more, aiming it's sharp end towards her head. Flicking her wrist Summer, quickly slashed it apart with Heillbringer.

" **Pathetic."**

Whipping around to the speaker Summer saw that Salem had still not moved an inch from her ornate black throne. She instead had a grimace, not too dissimilar to Summer's when she had fought Cinder. It was the face of someone who was bemused over being challenged by a weak opponent, something so far beneath her in comparison that it would take nothing more than the lifting of one finger to crush the insolent being.

" **Is that all you can do? I expected more."** she told her, the voice alone sending fearful shudders throughout her entire body. **"You aren't worthy of my presence. Begone!"**

Lifting one of her palms towards the sky, something akin to a black mass appeared to flow from her palm. Summer quickly noticed the shapeless cloud was rapidly growing bigger and taking form!

Backing away, the Grand Paladin just so avoided what looked like an enormous black paw, even with her tremendous speed, barely dodging the blow. It pulverized the rock where she had previously stood, sending flecks of gravel flying into the air. The same moment hundreds, if not thousands, of Nevermore, varying from normal bird sized to being almost as big as airships, attacked her from all directions. At the same time, whatever that gargantuan paw had belonged to slowly formed over Salem.

Gripping her scythe with both hands, Summer began slicing through the endless cloud of avian Grimm descending on her, falling into an almost meditative dance of death as she cut down Grimm after Grimm. Concentrating on avoiding and attacking simultaneously, the Grand Paladin decimated row after row of the beasts, relying on nothing but her skill. All while trying to break through whatever force was blocking her from using the silver eyes.

She could sense the power were still there, still safely within her body. But it felt off, as if something was changing, or rather _influencing_ , her greatest asset.

Without warning, something tore through the wall of Grimm and slammed into her chest, breaking at least four ribs when it connected. Her crumbling Aura was too weak to completely stop the force. Screaming at the pain, she stared helplessly at the enormous Grimm wolf which pinned her down under one of it's feet. Looking down on her, the beast opened it's mouth and a gigantic ball of yellow energy began gathering in its disgusting maw.

Acting on pure instinct, Summer managed to push through whatever was blocking her powers, collecting as much of it as she could. Just in time, as the hoover chose that moment to fire the ball of destructive energy down at her.

Silver met gold as the two forces collided, creating an almost fantastical show of lights and sparkles. For a moment neither attacker seemed to be able to overpower the other.

The next moment both beams dispersed, and Summer Xiao Long Rose, fortified by the protective might of the silver eyes, jumped direct through them, having freed herself from the paw and destroyed most of it in the process. She impacted against the skin of the beast and with a lighting fast slash from Heillbringer, cut right through the dark flesh, severely wounding the monster.

Stomping on it's divided face, Summer used the beast's shattered mask as a stabilizer while she swung her weapon again, sinking the ethereal blade into the monsters neck. Aiming her hand down, she shot a javelin of silver light at the monsters skull, easily penetrating the ruined head and pierced through it's brain, killing it instantly.

Launching herself off the collapsing Grimm, she raced towards Salem as fast as she could go, her body set ablaze with silver light. The barrier was strong enough to erase anything that dared stand in her way.

Three meters from her target she abruptly stopped, crashing against an invisible wall. Her power, the inner light that had shined through the devastated lands of this realm, deformed and retracted back until it was barely wrapped over her body. It was as if she had smacked against a wall of solid steel.

" **Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha."** The Grimm goddess she … she was _laughing_. In fact, she looked at her with an amused expression, despite the deaths of her pet and countless other Grimm.

"What's so funny?" demanded Summer, struggling to deploy her power once more. "Tell me so I may laugh as well!"

Suddenly the pressure which stopped her attack increased tenfold, and the demigoddess was almost forced her on her knees. Only ramming the base of Heillbringer into the ground supported her weight.

" **You look exactly like her!"** answered Salem bemusedly. **"You resemble Tenshi so much, and yet you are so incredible weak."**

 _Tenshi?_ Summer thought, causing the goddess to grin knowingly.

" **You may know her as the silver eyed goddess.** " She laughed again, slowly rising from her throne. Walking towards the prisoner, she inspected Summer like a cat would inspect a mouse caught in a trap. **"You are definitely of her lineage."**

The dark being slowly caressed her face with her cold, dead fingers.

" **Only those of her brood could ever wield that weapon."** Her arm lowered to the glowing scythes grip, but she was seemingly unable to reach it. **"Her presence on this thing is unmistakable. I could never forget the tool that brought me to the borders of destruction all these millennia ago."**

Her clothing shifted and divided itself, showing a massive black line reaching from her right shoulder to her thighs. "No one was ever able to wound me as she did. No Dragon King, no mage or witch, nor even Drakid could ever do this to me. To this day I still feel the pain of Heillbringer's bite."

Summer screamed at her body to move, to cut down the terrifying woman who was so close. But her arms and legs refused to even budge.

" **But in your hands is that grand weapon useless."** Salem calmly stated, in a manner that made it clear she thought it was a fact. **"You are less than a shadow of what Tenshi had been. You do not have her skill, strength, or might the Silver Eyed Goddess possessed. You have the remnants of the beast she was inside you, but so long as you cannot use them, you're nothing. Just another insect for me to smash."**

Something wild reared it's ugly head within Summer, something she resisted for most of her life. It was _rage_. Primal, feral wrath called up by the fear inside of her. Not for her own life, but that she wouldn't see Yang and Ruby, the two gems of her existence, ever again. So this time, instead of repressing the rage Summer embraced it, welcoming the anger; using the newfound strength to break through whatever invisible chains were binding her in place.

The look of surprise on Salem's face filled Summer with joy as she suddenly moved, ripping her scythe up to gut the creature before her, inflicting a lethal injury. Salem tried to back away, pressing her hands on her belly trying to contain her spilling innards, but she was too slow. Another swipe of Heilbringer and the Queen of the Grimm was promptly decapitated.

Panting heavily, she stared at her foes body, the adrenaline and excitement still burning through the her vines. Had she- had she really don't it? She, she killed Salem! She di-!

Her euphoria was interrupted by slow clapping, seeming to originate from directly behind her.

" **Congratulations!"** mocked Salem, the real Salem. **"You managed to take out one of my clones. I am truly impressed! You absolutely deserve the title of Grand Paladin!"**

Pointing her hand towards her she snipped with her fingers and blasted the Paladin back with a sudden gust of wind. Instead of trying to fight the attack Summer allowed it to hit her, and take her away from the entity.

" **When the Alphas and I fought against Tenshi and the founders escorting her, our battle devastated this realm. This once rich green land was transformed into a dead hell."** Salem continued talking, her voice despite the increased distance between her and Summer as audible as if she stood directly before her. **"Compared to these Grand Paladins you are nothing but a weak pretender."**

Hearing these words the prior rage returned burning even fiercer and Summer fired a huge wave of silver energy towards the Grimm Queen only for her to divide it before it even met her, presumably the same technique she had used to stop her before.

"I AM A GRAND PALADIN!" roared Summer, while shooting similar attacks with similar results. She held large pride in that title given that she was the only human to achieve it since the age of the Drakid. Now hearing that she didn't held up to the standards of the founders of the grand Families, well it didn't do wonders to her.

" **Oh really?"** chuckled Salem and once again raised her hands, causing Summer to fall in a defensive stance in preparation for some kind attack. **"Go get her Obedion!"**

Summer sensed something immense approaching from behind her and, trusting her instincts, she jumped sideways in a frantic attempt to doge. But she was too slow, and the massive thing impacted against her back to send her flying. Gasping in pain, Summer reached out to her power in midair to fired a blind volley of blasts towards the assailant, hoping that would be sufficient to end it. In the meantime she channeled the silver eyes once again, trying to warp herself a safe distance away.

Then a wave of exhaustion hit her, originating from all the damage she had been hit with coupled with the overuse of her eyes. Her vision blurred for a moment. and sharp pain shot through her skull. It was a glaring notification that she wouldn't be able to keep this fight up for long.

It took a few seconds but her sight recovered to some degree, but the throbbing ache remained.

" _My eyes are already shutting down?"_ Unconsciously she rubbed one of them. _"This means I'll have to end this fight quickly. Finishing off the one that just hit me and then run for it."_

The world around her returned but she only saw blurs, and something akin to a black fog blocked her vision to everything beyond her immediate surroundings. Using an ability as immensely powerful as the silver eyes came with a price. A mix of her strong Aura, Ozpin's magic and her bloodline that reached supposedly directly to the silver eyed goddess helped but with her aura broken and Oz's magic spent her lineage brought her only so far.

Concentrating on her ears she tried her best to locate any potential attack or new swarm of Grimm while jumping around in an effort to be less of an ideal target for her foes.

" _I have no chance against Salem. Any further use of my silver eyes will probably hurt me more than her."_ The realization was easy and the course for her next actions was quickly made. _"I may be no match for her but I now know where her hideout is located. If I make it back I can inform everyone. Qrow, Ozpin, Ironwood, Peach and maybe even Raven, together we'll definitively beat her!"_

Her eyesight completely normalized itself only moments after her reaching that conclusion and Summer was free to stare at the Grimm who had managed to send her flying. She stared and stared and stared.

Summer Xiao Long Rose had fought many Grimm in her life, both in her time as a student at beacon and later as a full fledged leader of an elite hunter team. She had continued the fight against the Grimm even after she was lifted into the ranks of the Paladin.

She had exterminated legions of Ursa, Beowulf and creeps. She had cut down all kinds of serpentine Grimm, had crushed elder deathstalkers in the deserts of Vacuo, had cleansed entire mountains of seemingly endless flocks of Nevermore and Griffins. She had reclaimed the wastelands and ruins that were Mountain Glenn, eliminating any possibility of a similar disaster occurring to Vale. She had seen and killed all kinds of exceptional Grimm, from Dragons that disrupted the see travel to the human like sirens. She purged the Mistralian Mother hive of it's insecticidal beast slaying the queens and kings. She had discovered a race of parasitic Grimm that harvested humans for their Aura and semblances and used their bodies as breeding stocks. And within an hour she became the reason for said's Grimm races extinction.

She had been disgusted and repulsed by different Grimm force but since her days in Beacon she had never met one that could give her that feeling that was now pulsing through her body.

Fear.

Disbelieving her eyes she stared at the enormous being that stood before her like a mountain. The Grimm could almost be called humanoid but not in the sense that the Grimm goddess had been. His entire huge over eighty meter tall form was covered in a thick armor made out of white bones with nowhere being even a tiny bit of it's black flesh visible.

It had human like face only that it missed a nose and had instead of what human or faunus may have called mouth an in spike covered hole. His eyes were hollow except for a simple burning light that presented it's pupil. And where a human or faunus may have had hairs or bold skull skin it had almost a dozen horns each alone the height of a Goliath.

Disbelieving her eyes she stared at the enormous being that stood before her like a mountain. The Grimm could almost be called humanoid but not in the sense that the Grimm goddess had been. His entire huge over eighty meter tall form was covered in a thick armor made out of white bones with nowhere being even a tiny bit of it's black flesh visible.

It had human like face only that it missed a nose and had instead of what human or faunus may have called mouth an in spike covered hole. His eyes were hollow except for a simple burning light that presented it's pupil. And where a human or faunus may have had hairs or bold skull skin it had almost a dozen horns each alone the height of a Goliath.

" **You say that you are worthy of the title of Grand Paladin, huh?"** sounded Salem dark voice through the air, seemingly originating from everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. **"Allow me to introduce you to Obedion. He is quite a magnificent specimen isn't he?"**

The Grimm titan began to move forward, every of his steps send tremors through the ground.

" **He is one of the first Grimm ever created. So to say one of the first not unlike me in a sense."** A sinister chuckle was audible. **"Tenshi and her four companions, Eis Schnee `The Ice Queen, Jaune Arc `The Hero`, Hawk Branwen `The First of the Faunus` and that blasted King of Dragons. All of them were Grand Paladin and everyone of them was truly worthy of that title. They killed dozens of Obedions kind and the Arc and the Dragon King were even able to battle Drakid Alpha's on even ground. You can not even begin to compare to them. Now if you manage to beat Obedion I may consider fighting you myself."**

With that the Empress of the Grimm stopped talking and the titan before her started moving again.

Reflexes, honed by decades of training took over and Summer herself moved, trying to further the distance between them in order to avoid being squashed like a fly. A thick cloud made of dust and shrapnel shot through the air and covered Summer in hundreds of mini projectiles as the enormous foot of the giant came down only centimeters from her.

Swinging her scythe the Paladin cut through the shock wave that was created by the impact and launched herself forward intending to half the entire foot of the creature using her natural speed as well as the devastating weapon she wielded to the full extent.

Heillbringer signaled a brilliant white flash as it connected with their foe and began to immediately to melt through it's bone structure bifurcating it's big toe. Suddenly the leg jerked away forcing Summer with her. Through the tip of her right eye she could see the huge shadow that was it's hand descend upon her.

Reacting quickly she ripped her weapon free, disconnecting the toe in the process and channeled her silver eyes. Holding the scythe like a spear into the sky she jumped only second's before being crushed. Flying good twenty meters through the air she smashed into the Grimm's leg not far below it's knee. Sliding down a couple of meters Summer managed to stop her descend by sinking her blade into the bone while waiting for her eyesight to recover again.

" _There is now way for me to outrun that thing. I have to kill it!"_ A light sensation of sickness hit Summer as well as physical exhaustion. _"Dammit I'm at my limit for my eyes! Any further use of the silver eyes will have worse and worse consequences! What should I do? How do I kill it?"_

The world around her once again became clear allowing her to see the leg she was clinging on more clearly. It wasn't even as she thought first. Instead it was winkled in sudden heights and slight holes almost as if these were scares from prior battles. Staring up she could see how the being inspected it's hand see if it had succeeded in killing her. Grasping out to the nearest scar, Summer began to slowly climb up the giants legs.

" _Think Summer, Think! How do you kill this thing?"_ She supposed that she might have been able to take it out if she wasn't worn out and had overused her eyes, but now she saw no way how to end this fight quickly.

" _It looks faintly human, does that mean that it has human weak points as well?"_ she asked herself while advancing over it's kneecap.

Once again the leg shifted, throwing Summer almost of but she managed to narrowly avoid the fall by ramming her scythe into it's skin. Suddenly the large shadow of it's hand once again descended on her and Summer jumped, just like last time away, only to crash into it's other hand that raced down to intercept her mid jump.

Gasping in pain Summer came the realization. " _It was moving so slow on purpose! It fooled me!"_ Right before she slammed into the ground, the huge hand coming down on her to smash her like a fly.

….

….

….

Pain. Pain filled Summers entire form. She was somewhat surprised to fell it however, having expected to die. Glancing down she saw that she was glowing. From head to toe, from her beautiful ruby red hair to her equally red boots she radiated a green light, with some green scripture drawn all over her skin.

" _That is… Ozpin's magic?"_ Realized the champion of Mankind. Had the young and simultaneously ancient sorcerer really enchanted her clothing to this degree, that the protective wants on it survived such massive force?

Suddenly a new wave of power flooded her, ending all nausea and weakness inside her and even containing the throbbing ache that threatened to explode her skull.

" _That is Post Mortem!"_ she thought in awe. A so called last chance spell, that temporarily neutralized all injuries, may they be physical or astral and put the affected back into his or her prime for a short time.

Realizing that this granted her only a couple of moments and that she was still in the process of being crushed by the Grimm she, not to dissimilar to situation she'd been in with the giant Grimm worm earlier, summoned a massive amount of silver eyed might and began to push the giant's hand back.

" _Using so much of my eyes even with Post Mortem active, the backlash will be brutal!"_ The giant clearly increased his efforts to shove her into the ground but her was ever so more forced back. _"And once the spell end's … I will most likely be rendered blind."_

There was no bitterness in the thought, only bleak acknowledgment of the facts.

" _And once I lose my eyesight with this thing still alive, I'll die!"_ Pictures of a certain tiny, red haired girl and a somewhat bigger blonde girl flashed through her head. "Ruby, Yang." She remembered the conversation she had with the two as well her promise to be back to her little girls ninth birthday.

She couldn't, wouldn't die here.

Packing Heillbringer with both hand she swung the weapon with her entire might against the white wall before her, cutting through bone, flesh and skin, coating herself in the dark blood of the Grimm. The heavy, pitch black liquid vaporized the moment it made contact with the silver energy surrounding Summer, not one stain reaching the descendant of the silver eyed goddess.

A screech of pain filled the air, load enough to rapture unprotected eardrums. The hand flinched back but it was to late. Four of five fingers, from the pinky finger to the index finger had been completely severed and through the fountains of dark blood flew the Grand Paladin, glowing as an intense white light intent on vanquishing all evil.

Rushing through the sky she crossed the distance between them in under a second, air and sound bending around her in ominous cracks as she channeled more and more power into her weapon lighting it up brilliantly, turning metal and iron into something astral silverlike. The very world around them seemed to groan and repent as the legendary item changed into it's actual form, a construct of mass destruction, that had been the Silver eyed goddess tool to best the Drakid Alpha's.

Walls of Nevermore and other avian Grimm rose up around them, and in the distance Summer could see that Salem was callously observing her fight from afar, now protected by an enormous dome made out of Grimm matter, growing as the Queen of Grimm hastily threw every Grimm in the Area between her and the devastating attack that she was about to unleash.

The titan Grimm itself tried to retreat, realizing what was about to happen but a new command of his mistress caused these actions to stop. Grabbing the holy now almost intangible scythe with both hands an earth shattering pulse of energy broke out of Summer form blasting through the thousands creatures, turning them into ash or banning them outright out of existence.

She herself did barely notice this as she screamed in agony that was unlike everything she had ever felt before. Even holding Heillbringer in it's astral form almost pulverized Summers arms, stuffing power into her till she felt she was about to explode. Every vine, every bone, every organ hurt as might that wasn't made for her burned through them causing damage and pain to the extent that only touching it almost destroyed her. She could not even begin to imagine how it may feel if she swung this piece of divine might or what it would do to her.

Well she guessed she was about to find out.

It was almost as if time itself had stopped as she slowly, oh so slowly, lifted Heillbringer up, every nerve, every muscle in her body screaming as they were torn by the unimaginable strength, which had once rested in the object but was now in the process of waking up.

Her vision tunneled as more and more of her body broke down aiming at the frozen giant before her. Pictures, images, scenes of her past brushed aside her. They showed her with a blond man, who was so strong and yet so kind and loving. With him were her two little angels laughing and having fun.

"Yang, Ruby, Tai…. I'm sorry. Looks like I won't be coming back after all..."

And she brought the weapon down.

.

.

.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"AfrGHGF!" Was all that left her mouth, as she was no longer able to properly articulate.

She no longer felt anything on her hands, arms, feet and legs except this feeling. This soul shattering, mind tearing, driving into insanity feeling. It felt as if every nerve in her body had been laid bare for the merciless world to ravage. She no longer knew what this unpleasant sensation has been called.

She could no longer hear, where once had been her ears now was nothing but holes from which blood bubbled out, she could no see something as felt something rinsing down her wasted cheeks.

"SHE….." Even thinking brought her more and new types of agony. "I…. have…. To -" She had almost managed to grasp the thought but it slipped away again. "I … have…. To …. livE..." She had to what? And Why? What was that? Live? What meaning had that?

Pictures flared up each representing persons. A black haired man and one with golden hair. The man was in some black suit and beside him stood a woman (her maybe?) in a long dress as white as snow. She saw herself agreeing to something he said and the entire crowd before them cheered. She then saw the woman wreathing in pain and screaming while cursing the blond man beside her until moments later she was holding something fleshy and wrinkly in her hands, that was crying. The woman and the man were crying to put it did not seem to be because they were anymore in pain.

Suddenly the woman was with a similar but bigger and older thing and was singing both of them into sleep. These pictures brought relieve and ache to her, that she felt deep inside her as if something inside her was screaming up. It an entire new kind of pain. And unable to bear it she banned these pictures and scenes from her mind.

They were replaced by new ones. Strange and different ones. They felt foreign and alien as if these did not belong to her. She saw a woman identical in form but different exterior. Her hair, her entire entire even her skin was of a silverish color. She was in armor that seemed to equally exist and yet not be there. She wasn't alone, behind her was an enormous army, consisting of countless humans and faunus. Above her in the sky flew hundreds, if not thousands of Dragons, each more magnificent than the last but none managed to come even close to the one who accompanied the silver woman herself. The creature had golden scales that could rival the sun in their shine and once again that feeling returned to her chest, that longing.

There were others, a man with long dark hair, armed with two longish slender blades, one red as blood the other one white. There was a woman in blue with white hair that held a sword that looked as if it was made of blue crystals. And then there was blonde, blue eyed man who wielded nothing but a plain sword and shield and yet was marching with confidence.

These five were leading an army larger and bigger than anything the world had ever seen prior or after this event.

Who were these people? Who was she? Where was she? What had-?!

A new intense pain ripped her out of the questions as something stabbed her through the right shoulder.

" **I….. you.. worthy…. Grand Paladin!"** She could barely understand whoever was talking to her and trying to gave her only new pain.

Suddenly something hit her face.

"AJBWEUFWEFEFB!?" It… IT WAS DRILLING INTO HER HEAD!

Panic began to set in as she felt it and she began to trash around, attempting to stop the thing of what it was currently doing to her skull, but she couldn't use her limps.

Panic began to set in as she felt it and she began to trash around, attempting to stop the thing of what it was currently doing to her skull, but she couldn't use her limps.

" **Stop resisting!"** ordered something in a commanding voice. She did not hear someone saying that, the words just appeared in her brain. Something inside her was appalled by the very suggestion of just giving up, but another lance of unspeakable agony silenced that voice.

She had no time to wonder what that inner voice was or to whom it belonged as suddenly more words appeared inside her.

" **I must say I'm quite impressed. To use that weapons astral form and to survive? That feat goes beyond the extraordinary! With that one strike you wiped out every Grimm in this entire region and, if you had concentrated it instead of just sending out a cleansing pulse you could've seriously injured me! The only other person to ever use that might was Tenshi and well she was quite literally a goddess so ..."**

She could no longer concentrate it, her entire attention singled, directed at that one name.

"TenSHi!" She screamed up at the pain that speaking with her devastated mouth brought but she couldn't hold it back.

That… THAT. T.H.A.T. Name!

Memories were exploding though her filling her skull and vanquished all else even the pain she felt.

Power flew through her, restoring eyesight and the use of her limps. Her new vision pictured the image before in black and white, Dark and silver. She saw the Enemy before her a surprised, no shocked that face that slowly realized. Bringing up her hands she could see the broken bones and shattered fingers but that did not stop her of bringing forth her next move.

Before Salem could struck her down or order the parasite inside her to kill her she attacked.

A new Sun, not made out of gold but of brilliant silver flashed in existence, the massive glowing ball rapidly expanding and engulfing the entire scenery.

More and more memories flowed back into her mind, in such volumes that the sheer amount of it almost completely overwhelmed her. There were scenes of glorious and grand battles of the past, of two children whose names she did not know. It was confusing and much of the information was contradicting, but that did not matter to the being as she eradicated the last remnants of Grimm inside her.

She had a battle to fight. Who or what she was is entirely secondary to that. The being would have enough time to figure these things out after she had survived this battle

Standing up she moved slowly, harshly. Her body was broken to a point where even she could not fully repair it, at least not in such a short time spawn.

She came to these realizations within the first second of her launching her attack. At 1.5 seconds she had finished standing and began to fix what could be fixed. At 2.3 seconds the silver sun had reached it's maximum expansion, having a diameter of multiple miles.

At 2.9 seconds she noticed in fact that the entity she had forced back with her actions was still within her reach, inside the for it corroding silver light. Coming to the conclusion that drawing profit from it's own confusion the being decided that the best course of action would be to directly assault her before the silver sphere could collapse.

Recalling Heillbringer back into the physical plane she finished the last improvements to her form and launched her attack.

At 3.2 seconds she reached the Grimm creature who had distance itself multiple hundreds of meters in an attempt to escape her and the sphere.

Moving at meta sonic speeds the scythe itself wasn't visible to something as primitive as a human eye as it clashed dozens of times with the Grimm, ripping holes and cliffs through it.

At 3.9 seconds the Grimm had finished producing it's defensive weapon by creating a blade staff, while equally closing and melding her slashed apart constantly regenerating form.

At 4.5 seconds the rapidly collapsing hull of the silver sun reached the two combatants and – after clinging to them for a miniscule part of a moment leaving them behind.

Being now able to use her visual senses again she could now accurately asses how much damage she had done to Salem.

Her opponents clothing, along with most of her skin had been melted away by her first strike and her body was covered in cuts of varying severity.

Contemplating for a moment to launch an astral strike on her she quickly dismissed it and continued her relentless attack. She frowned at the ever present knacks and booms harassing her ears. She had been adjusted to fighting at such speeds but it seemed like this body was not. In fact this entire form despite feeling severely weaker than what she was used to.

Her foe however had seemingly no such problems as every wound she inflicted on it seemed to heal as fast as they came.

"No!" Realized she. "That is no regeneration! That's recreation!" Once again broke her scythe broke through her opponents defense and cut through her weapon into her chest. Not intending to allow the Grimm to regain her stance she engulfed her own had in silver light and threw a punch aiming at the face, however Salem manged to catch it using the tentacles that grew out of her shoulders, while simultaneously stabbing through her lower body using the two halves of the blade staff.

She was just able to limit the damage by destroying the improvised spears through once again calling fourth her silver eyes. Ripping her fist and her weapon free she jumped back, narrowly avoiding a ton of tentacles breaking out from all over Salem's body and started racing towards her.

Gripping Heillbringer with both hands she encased it into her might and swung it. The sheer air pressure created by it cut through the black tendrils and forced the abomination a couple feet back buying her enough time to do this.

For a second time on this day the world seemed to coil around the scythe as it began to phase into another plane, the dimension of deities and devils, drawing power that couldn't possible exist on Remnant as it's structure itself changed. But this time around the weapon did not shift alone. Instead whatever seemed to happen to it expanded to it's wearer too.

Tenshi Rose slowly opened her eyes again after instinctively closing them. She was one with Remnant and Remnant was one with her. Seeing Salem before her she could only laugh at it's comparatively sluggish movements, helpless attempts to somehow reach her.

Ignoring her the silver eyed goddess breathed in, taking in the essence of this time into her and it hit her like a Dragons warhammer. This world, this time it, it was so pure. Tears quelled up in her eyes. Sure there were certain evils among the humans and faunus, not to mention the existence of the Grimm.

But it was missing something certain, the presence of one specific source of evil that had been the bane of her time. The great evil, the destroyer and despoiler, the cancer of her existence were missing. There were none of them here. There. Were. No. Drakid!

Countless memories flooded her now clear mind. The genocide of the Dragon race. The Destruction of grand Kingdoms, Republics and empires of Man and Faunus. The deaths of her friends and companions. All those who had fallen in order to finally brings the Alphas down. A particular scene crossed her mind. She herself lying dying in the arms of her Tai-Long, her lover, partner and husband. They both were covered in wounds but these hadn't been what had sealed her fate. Her mind, no her soul had been critically damaged in her last fight with the Alpha Nathuellia before she had finally managed to seal her with the other alpha's finally away an a prison she and Merlin had crafted themselves.

With the alpha gone she could still

With the alpha gone the only thing she had to do was to erase this last stenches on Remnant and this world could finally find peace!

A sudden sensation shot through her and sent tremors through both the astral and physical plane. Shifting her attention back to Salem she could see that she also had begun to phase into the astral plane.

" _Took you long enough to notice."_ thought Tenshi. That was of course relative given that in real time only a couple of Nanoseconds had passed. Raising her left hand a massive swirl of energy began to concentrate around it. _"Sorry Salem but it seems like there are no Drakid around to safe you this time!"_

Forcing her arm back into the real world she for a moment shattered the barrier between astral and real allowing a huge pulse originating from her arm to enter Remnant with predictable results. The released energy destroyed everything, mountains, cloud formation, the entire landscape was leveled. Whirlwinds made out of rocks, dust, and dirt rose to the sky as everything, truly everything, in the surrounding thirty miles or so was wiped out.

A sudden explosion of pain shot through Tenhi's new body as something collided with her. In the astral plane. Trying to turn around to see what was happening her body twisted in pain and began to convulse.

"I.- I can't move, what is happening?" New pain blossomed around her chest and she faintly shifted her head to see what it was.

A clawed hand shrouded in absolute darkness had impaled her straight through her heart. There was no blood or even any visible form of injury, but the famed silver eyed goddess had been hit lethally non the less.

Tenshi felt how her incorporeal became heavy darkness spreading from the claw through her entire body and she suddenly snapped back into the physical plane. In fact she was falling from her earlier position right down the massive crater, that she had created with her earlier attack.

Panic shot through her body as she plummeted towards the ground. She tried helplessly to call her silver eyes out but nothing happened.

In a last desperate attempt she moved what little Aura this form had recovered into her legs, steeling them for the impact, but it was of no use. A pained cry escaped Tenshi's lips as she landed, the force behind it cracking through her Aura and shattering most of her leg bones. But a new sensation broke her away from this agony. Right before her seemed reality to rend and tear as a person shrouded in black appeared.

In a desperate attempt to stop whatever there was coming, she raised her hands, of which only one responded. Looking aside Tenshi saw the reason for that and almost vomited. Her right arm was, for the lack of the better word, destroyed. It hadn't been able to withstand the force of the astral release.

Forcing her eyes away from what at one point may have resembled a limp she looked back at the figure who had by now fully materialized in all of her horrible glory. Completely clad in pitch black scales, wings and tail the almost fifteen foot tall creature slowly descended towards her.

"A Drakid! And it's completely unlike anything i've ever seen. I've never felt something like that, not even the Alphas compare. It almost feels like ….. me?! A twisted perverted version that of me…!?"

Feeling a minuscule part of her power return she fired a blast of silver energy at Drakid only for her to create a ball of black energy in one of her hands and to hurl that into her attack. The moment the orb met the stream of silver it expanded almost as if it was annulling, no infecting Tenshi's attack.

She just managed to throw herself aside and avoided being torn apart as the attack narrowly missed her main body mass and just grazed her severing what was left of her right arm in the process of.

Before Tenshi was able to suppress the pain the Drakid launched a second attack, a black spear, exactly the moment her attention had been diverted because of the loss of her arm remnants.

Now if Tenshi had been in her old form she may have been able to dodge, to fight but battered and exhausted from fighting she stood no chance. Seeing the lethal attack coming but knowing that she wouldn't be able to dodge she in a haste made one final decision. Earlier one the astral plane she had felt the presence of two of her companions that had somehow survived their brutal fights against the Alphas. Merlin. The supreme wizard felt different from when she had known him Eons ago, but he was still here as was her beloved husband Tai-Long. If there were two warriors that had the skills to at least fight something like an Alpha off but for that they needed a proper weapon to do so.

Assembling what little of her power was left she encased Heillbringer in silver light warping the holy weapon away to whoever of the two was closer. The Drakid were back and this world needed weapons capable of fighting them. This woman whose body she inhabited, she had offspring, who may in time be able to use the weapon. This meant that there was still hope for this Remnant to fight on if the Drakid were to return.

The lance impacted on Tenshi's chest just left to her heart impaling her lungs, cutting through her ribcage and nailing her to the ground. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing but blood came out. She felt how the curse burned through her veins. Her vision began to shimmer darkness surrounding her.

"It...is almost reminiscent of my first time." She managed to think. A large scaled Drakid beating her down having bested her after a narrow merciless battle. "I just doubt that there'll be a dragon in golden armor to save me this time, huh?"

Looking up she could see how a massive dark shadow descended on her and then everything went dark.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tears ran down her face as brought the mangled form of Tenshi's new host on the black altar.

" **What are you going to do?"** The question remained unanswered for a moment as she instead inspected her body a bit longer. Waiting another couple of moments she finally answered.

" **I'm going to use her body to fully bring back the power of those of my children she had imprisoned."** Was the answer.

Even Salem shuddered for a moment at hearing this. Hundreds of Drakid were in various stances all around them. All frozen in time and space by the silver eyed goddess for all of eternity.

Only, this imprisonment seemed to fall short. The power of the black eyes crept around them like some kind of nightmarish parasite eating at the barriers, infecting them as if they were rotten flesh. And yet until this point the silver light had refused to bulge no matter how much they had been withered with.

" **How do you plan to break the seal?"** asked Salem, annoyed. The queen of the Grimm and Goddess in her own right wasn't used to having to beg someone for answers. Under normal circumstances there were none who would have dared to withhold information from her and those who did often experienced the consequence of doing so.

But this was not the case as Salem had no illusions who would win a fight between them. That knowledge however angered her only more.

" **Tenshi gave her life to seal them."** answered the Drakid. **"In order to destroy the seal we need more than just the power of my eyes. We need her blood and soul."** Nodding towards Salem the battered Grimm Monarch acted.

Several vines made out of Grimm matter grew out of the black altar on which Tenshi's comatose Vessel was, and quickly penetrated her outer shell and began to rapidly suck out blood out of the body. Salem waited till she had extracted most of the liquid leaving just enough for the body to survive. With one swipe of her hand she extended the black ropes towards the one Drakid who had the most of her peers power circling around it. Upon reaching it the black power consumed the Grimm tentacles, instantly evaporating the rest of Tenshi's blood.

For a moment nothing happened. Salem was about to ask as suddenly a shudder, a sickening groan it seemed like, swept through the cave. The next second the sacred indestructible prison holding the uncontainable shattered, as if it was a construct made of cheap glass.

Salem herself couldn't help but feel slight discomfort as the creature before bawled over the ground. The monster attempted to stand up but it's legs and arms failed to support its weight. The wings were gruesomely mauled, and it's back was a single bloody mess.

" _ **Mother!"**_ the creature mewled helplessly. The words barely had left it's mouth and the black matter surrounding it surged, entering though mouth, ears, the destroyed nose and the endless open wounds all over it's body.

It lead out a scream that was a strange mix of agony and pleasured bliss, as it's mother reconstructed shattered bones, repairing annihilated organs and the partially missing spleen.

" **You who is one of my first and most perfect of children, are born anew today!"** The Drakid stood up and straightened it's, or rather _her_ pose. **"Be once again the horror that plagued the old world, the nightmare come true. Live again mighty Alpha Astrea!"**

The darkness now flowed in massive waves around her, seemingly swallowing what little light was there. Wounds and scars alike disappeared as more and more of Astrea's crippled form was crafted anew. Only one scar, a massive burn over her heart, refused to vanish.

" **Mother."** said the Alpha, **"What are your orders for me!?"**

Her eyes wandered to the motionless body on the altar, and her mouth formed a vicious smile. "You have slain the bane of our race?"

" **No she is still alive. I need her blood and soul in order to free your brothers and sisters."** the Alpha answered, before turning around. **"For your orders. Tenshi managed to transport Heillbringer away before I was able to stop her. Find it and bring it to me. Also the host that Tenshi chose for herself, find out if she has any offspring or relatives that may serve as vessels for her return. I am sure Salem and her pawns may be able to help you with that task."**


	2. IT'S ALIVE!

Hey there folks... Sorry for the large amount of nothing for like four months? Live happened and i had to deal with some semi serious injury/sickness that keept me from writing. Still have that Problem but it's better now so I'm thinking of continuing this fic if enough people want to. Also a little tip would be helpful. Do you guys want 12/13k Essays that take a month or more to write or do you want chapters which are only 2/3k big that come weekly instead? Please review


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

 **here it is at least. The next chapter. It would be nice for you if you would tell me what you think about it as it would help me improve my content.**

"Aaaaaaa!" groaned Catherine Cross, flush with victory.

"Aaaaaaa." responded the sentient carrot of an animal, whose red feathers had the same color as the huntress's hair.

"Cross stop messing around, and show me your cards already!" complained Cloud, who looked rather aggravated at her companion.

"Heh." the mop of red hair smiled. "Why should I do that? You guys have lost either way, so let me just savor the moment." With her other hand, she held a cherry away from the martini she had just drunk under Timcampy's nose, only for the bird in question to immediately eat the treat, biting it's masters finger in the process.

"Ouch! Motherfu...!" she cursed as she ripped her hand away, angrily glaring at the bird. '"You little...!"

"Cross!"

"Kay kay." she muttered, her grin returning when she laid out her cards. "Here's my hand: four queens. Aka, all your money is mine bitch!"

The pain in her hand completely forgotten, she took all the lien from her comrade in one sweep, cackling like a madwoman.

"Damnit!" cursed Cloud with a fist slammed on the crate, the woman's demeanor clearly deflating as she had put most of her money into this. "That's it, I'm broke! Count me out."

"Awww, don't be like that Cloud... you can still play!" Cross said playfully, squirming on the box she used as a chair.

"And how should I do that without any money?" Cloud snapped.

"Well to be honest, I would have nothing against turning this in a little round of strip-poker, hehe." she slyly offered, winking her long eyelashes at the blonde.

"Eh, I'm good." Cloud leaned back on her seat, exaggeratedly waving her hands. "I think I'll go out on a patrol, look to see if anything wild jumped the wall or any Grimm have slipped through or whatever." Standing up, Cloud took her massive greatsword, one she nicknamed the Buster Sword after the fine effect it had when the heavy blade hit something.

"Don't be a prude!" Cross protested indignantly. "The surveillance network around Patch is so extensive, the guards would notice even something like a mouse going through the fence. If there were any Grimm danger we'd been called up long ago. And you know that just as well as I do." Suddenly a smile creeped onto her face. "Methinks that you don't want to patrol at all, but go sneak into the bed of a hunk back there on the mountain!"

A blush exploded over Cloud's features at the thought, even while she viciously stammered. "N-n-no! That's ridiculous!"

Cross' smirk took on epic proportions upon seeing her reaction. "Really? You don't want that he takes you into his strong arms, kisses you before you two play hanky panky till the sun goes up?"

CROSS! He is married to the grand Paladin and has two children!" Cloud all but screamed; she should've stayed quiet so gossipers wouldn't pounce, but she was too upset at her friend's insinuations.

 _"And? Miss 'I save the world' isn't here at the moment." she gestured at their surroundings. "That's the very reason why we're here. If anything, that means him sleeping with the Grand Paladin is just more proof that he is good in bed. I mean, he's together with THE_ Summer Rose. She could have any man or woman she wants, whenever she wants. Any yet she's always together with him! I bet the sex with him is phenomenal!"

To her continuing amusement, her counterpart grew even redder at the claim. To her this was an indicator that even if she hadn't planned on seducing Taiyang Xiaolong, then she had at least thought of the possibility.

"Don't be so ashamed! Maybe I'll even accompany you! Make it a wild threesome, hehe." Saying that, Maria suggestively winked at her while making a couple (rather obvious) hand gestures.

Her fellow huntress was apparently less enthusiastic over the whole aspect, as she gushed some words of denial out before grabbing her weapon and fleeing the room.

"Ahhhh she's so innocent, don't you agree Timcampy?" Reaching out she carefully stroked the arrogant bird's neck feathers, while taking a second drink into her other hand. "Today is a good day."

While she counted her ill gotten wages in one hand, she thought over the idea with more seriousness. She was mostly messing with her friend, but the thought of actually going through with such things was appealing at the least. Cloud was a shy yet attractive damsel; her small breasts were balanced out by the nice biceps she gained from carrying her massive sword around. And the Xiaolong patriarch, by the twins! He was lust and beauty given human form.

Of course, trying to actually seduce him held some obvious risks. Namely being pulverized by the wife of the golden haired Adonis, who's skill in destroying things was the stuff of legend. On the other hand, such risk had a charm of it's own.

Who knows, maybe Mrs. Rose may be a fan of that herself? She heard Mr. Xiaolong used to have another wife besides the Grand Paladin, supposedly a teammate of theirs. Raising the glass to her lips, the thought caused her to blush a bit. It would certainly make her assignment to this region a lot more interesting, of that she was sure. Oh, and of course, the mother of all bragging rights once she returned home to Mountain Glenn.

 _Hmm_ , she thought. _What kind of positions would she be fon-_

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a bone chilling scream, filled with pain and absolute terror. The voice of the scream undoubtedly belonged to her friend.

Everything turned to barely recognizable scenes as Cross went into motion. Her glass of alcohol was immediately cast aside, not even reaching the ground before the seasoned huntress was already through the door. In her hand was her prized weapon, a large revolver named Judgment, held out in the open for all to see. All her prior dirty thoughts were gone, replaced with burning concern for Cloud.

Her first instinct was to yell out her name in attempt to find her, but she suppressed the urge. Cross was aware that would warn her alright, as well as whatever had attacked her. Instead she ran towards where the scream had come from, only going a short distance from their clandestine game. What she found nearly tore her heart apart.

It was Cloud, or rather, what was left of her. Her body was mostly intact, with one exception. A fist sized hole in her chest, directly above her heart. Cross' best friend still had her mouth open in a silent scream, raw terror in her lifeless eyes.

For a moment she was stunned beyond words, a wild turmoil of emotions raging through Cross. Anger, sadness, agony, and fear. Collecting titanic amounts of self control, she schooled her face into am emotionless mask. She had lost teammates before in Mountain Glenn, she was no stranger to grief. Cross could mourn later; what mattered now was dealing with the son of a bitch that had killed her best friend and one time lover.

Someone was able to kill a battle hardened, frontline orientated huntress in under ten seconds, while simultaneously being undetectable to her senses. Someone who -

 _Cross saw something moving, a dark blur in the corner of her vision, and she able to concentrate her Aura just in time. The light of her soul foower into her raised arms, only just blocking the claws of the thing_ slamming into her. She screamed out in pain when it made contact, the sheer force of the impact almost shattering her arms.

"ON! MATERA! UN!" The magic words barely left her mouth in time, eating up almost all of her remaining strength, but they were enough to raise a blue half bubble shield in front of her, pushing the creatures away.

It was- Cross had absolutely no idea what this beast was. A mess of claws, fangs and wings that looked shockingly humanoid as it grinned at her. Which was strange, since Grimm didn't gri-

Wait why was it grin-?

Pain exploded all over the back of her head, and everything went dark.

 _Later..._

The spade dug deep into the dirt before formally catapulting the mud out the already established hole. The movements of the man Holding it were continuous and had something robotic in them. He wore neither a coat nor anything else to protect him from the strong rain and wind, so typical for the late Valesian October.

And yet the blond man did not seem to care, his face an emotionless mask.

Three days. It had been three days since his connection to his soulmate and true love had been severed oh so cruelly and abruptly. Three days since the of joy of his life had died. There had been no message, no confirmation nor information. Just an sudden flash of agony centering around his heart, a direct outcry from his soul.

He had gained many, many spouses over his long life, but he had only ever truly loved a few of them. To this day he had no idea what his relationship with Raven, or Ray as he affectionally called her, had actually been. It had started as a dare, and had strived on a fire of desire and passion. Until the Day she had left him, because of Yang. Because her firstborn hadn't been a Branwen, because she was married to a man with whom she could not produce heirs to her species. To this day he had no idea if she had ever really loved him back.

Summer was... something different. Her innocence, honesty, naivety, and heroism made her into a one of a kind person, the kind that normally only existed in fairy tales. Like Raven, she had a fire burning inside, a legendary passion, but unlike the fierce Branwen, who was the very definition of untamable, Summer wanted to be a real hero. And that was something she had certainly been, and he loved her for it.

Pain exploded in his chest and tears started to ran down his cheeks, as he slowly took some her belongings in his hand.

Her favorite cookies, a earlier version of her scythe, broken in battle and no longer suitable for combat, and other simple items. Every little thing was a trusted memory, either of their days at Beacon, their adventures as team STRQ, or their time together. He and Summer had held no illusions about the dangers she faced in her life, and the pursuit of becoming a hero of legend.

They both knew that she might die on a mission, and they made preparations accordingly. Every huntsman and huntress in Vale were required to write their will the day they graduated from one of the various schools and academies, those in Mountain Glenn had to even just to enter training.

With trembling hands he lowered the items piece by piece into the empty grave, one that may never be filled with an actual body.

He didn't know how long he stood there with tears streaming down his cheeks, recalling all the moments he and her had experienced, all the adventures and misadventures they had went through, both as a Team and as a couple. Forcing the memories away (if only for a moment), he grabbed his shovel and began to return the excavated earth, now mostly mud thanks to the pitiless rain, to the grave.

It was getting late. Ruby needed her good night story, she wouldn't sleep otherwise.

Laying the shovel aside, he forced a smile on his face, one he hoped she was too young to see through. She would want to hear the continuation of the dragon Prince and the goddess he'd been telling her since a week ago. He took the shattered scythe pieces in his hands, and again the memories welled up, only to be forced back again.

Yang would like always protest, and say she was too old for bedtime stories. Yet she always act like she was sleeping while secretly fervently listening to what he was hearing and... and...

The pieces slid out from his fingers, trembling too hard to keep ahold of them. His legs gave way under him, and he fell on his knees to let out a howl of pure anguish. He had no idea for how long he sat there bawling like a child, gripping his chest above the heart completely unable and unwilling to hold his emotions in check.

It was because of this that he did not notice the two entities coming closer, until they were almost upon him.

Only his instincts and the unimaginable amounts of training he possessed, honed his reflexes to heights beyond what was humanly possible, allowed him to dodge the black orb launched at his exposed back. The projectile phased through the freshly dug grave, but swiftly returned for another run, apparently homing in on the blond father of two. Only for the orb to slam into the quickly raised and Aura reinforced shovel.

The black ball exploded, lancing out multiple strings that wrapped themselves around the object to tear it apart, causing Taiyang to quickly back away. One quick glance showed him the devastated site, where he had buried the most precious belongings of his departed love. At the sight of the desecrated grave, intense anger flowed through him.

The emotion took physical form, as flames erupted from his hands. Covering his entire left arm in an makeshift armor as he lashed out to shatter the lancing strings, what he assumed was a Semblance based attack, in one overwhelming strike.

The moment his fingers connected with the orb he felt a terrible sensation, a vomit inducing kind of unease gribble through his entire body as he recognized something he hadn't felt in a long, long time.

The Curse.

Jumping aside, Taiyang barely dodged a volley of smaller projectiles following the orb, stuff he faintly recognized as bullets, which promptly changed course and slammed into him. They hardly stung at his Aura, but the contact was more than enough to deliver dangerous enchantments inside him, the iron slivers digging into his flesh paralyzing from contact alone. The level of pain they inflicted was on a whole new level, enough to have knocked a lesser man unconscious.

Taiyang just suppressed it, and let out an annoyed growl. Magic, oh how he hated the stuff. Or more specifically, when it was used against him.

All the fire surrounding him subsided, yet he didn't try to move. No one was attacking him anymore, meaning they probably wanted to speak with him. Why they never just asked first was a thing he never figured out, his assailants always wanted to fight for some gods awful reason.

Sure enough, only a couple moments later he could hear footsteps on the soft grass. A sure indicator of his mysterious assailants' arrival.

"Madame Cross, Madame Cloud!?" he said quizzically, mildly surprised as he saw both of them, and they were armed. Cross aimed her revolver at him, while Cloud held her sword in front of her chest, walking in unison towards him.

 _The huntresses assigned by Ozpin to Patch! Heh, the bastard couldn't even wait till I finished mourning?_ Taiyang felt the anger in himself rising.

"So." his voice was cold, bereft of emotions. "I take you are here to assure the next Silver Eyed Warrior will be under the Wizard's control? Since the old one passed away now?" he taunted, yet he could smell a rather strong trace of blood and dread in the air. "Obviously the old man went senile if he thinks you two are enough for this task!"

The last sentence actually filled him with some worry. Ozpin was many things, namely a treacherous little body snatcher that just so happened to have tremendous amounts of magic at his fingertips, but he wasn't dumb. Of all things Taiyang could say about the man, he was willing to give him that much. He knew common huntsmen and huntresses would never be able to best him; the pair before him were probably just a diversion, keeping him occupied while another group attacked the house. Sacrificing some worthless Pawns to take the Queen was exactly Ozpin's way of handling things, which meant secondary and contingency plans were certainly already in motion.

He breathed heavily, taking in the scents of his surroundings. No one else was closing in on his position, or encroaching on the house. All in all, he could only sense himself and the two fools halting before him, although something was off about the pair. The two women, they somehow tasted wrong to his refined senses. And when were they this quiet in town? These women earned a reputation for noisiness days after arriving in Patch, Cross especially imbedding herself into the local gossip circles with so much ease. On top of the women's silence, he couldn't sense the usual noises of squeaking animals through the rain anymore.

A somewhat carnal smile creeped on the man's face, his muscles tensing in preparation for sudden movement. The animals knew what was coming, making them instinctively flee. In this regard, they were certainly smarter than the humans. The falling water droplets seemed to slow down, almost as if they were moving through pudding.

It was Cloud who made the first move. Propelling herself forward, she activated multiple orange Dust gems placed on her massive blade's hilt, igniting the weapon into a spectacle of brilliant fire. Thrusting forward, she aimed at her opponents head, evidently hoping the sudden light would temporarily blind him. Only for Taiyang to sidestep the attack in the last possible moment, the sharp edge grazing just beyond his trimmed beard. He appeared to entirely unintimidated. This was the prompt Cross used to also take action.

Raising her right hand she fired six bullets in one rapid burst, inciting the magic technique she had been preparing during the brief standoff, creating a towering bolt of blue lightning. He easily dodged both attacks in the same manner just as he did with the previous huntress, while stopping a swing from Cloud's massive sword by simple pinching the blade between two fingers.

Before Taiyang was able to land any blow however, he was forced back by the lightning he had evaded, kicking in once more to race towards him. In the corner of his eye he could see Cross fire another volley (he always wondered how did she reload so fast) while the already previously fired bullets were also closing in towards him. Similarly, between the lightning and Cloud prepping for another run should have cut off any escape route. He was doomed. Or rather would be, if he was limited to the speeds of his opponents' moves.

The world around him snapped to a standstill. The rain coming down halted at once, the water seemingly holding in place. He could even see one of Cross' bullets in mid flight, idly curious if the raindrop it was shattering could affect its accuracy. His vision shifted when he blinked, showing the humans as patches of yellowish orange in a sea of blues and purples. The bullets, Cloud's blade, and she herself simply stopped moving. Only the blue bolt moved forward, almost agonizingly slow.

Taiyang moved his leg without any trouble, and simple kicked his attacker in the side. Her ribs shattered the moment his foot made contact, the crunching of her bones drawn out to a nauseating racket of splintered bone. Her locked expression didn't change, and hopefully it wouldn't when she fell. Cloud was down already, her brain just had yet to realize the fact.

In that exact moment, something else happened. Upon touching the huntress, he felt something else when his Aura brushed against hers. Something he had not felt in a very long time.

The Curse.

The pure shock of the realization rooted him in place, frozen like a statue for about one second. So great was the shock his vision slid back into it's normal mode. He barely felt the bullets and lightning impacting his chestn; the force behind the attacks barely dented his Aura, but the magical blows imparted enough energy to paralyze his movement.

I guess that means Ozpin is not behind this, doesn't it? He thought. Meanwhile his wide eyes observed Cloud, or rather what was Cloud not so long ago, standing up again from where his kick had propelled her. This was despite the fact no regular human could be mobile after such a kick. At the very least she would be looking at a several month stay in the hospital, assuming she ever left the place.

It made sense though. Neither huntresses were human beings any longer, or even really alive for that matter. He wanted to kick himself for not noticing this earlier, he really had gotten out of shape.

Clap.

Taiyang paused; he could hear someone clapping.

"Magnificent! Absolutely magnificent."

 _ _The words sounded distorted, as if the speaker hadn't articulated in a long time. His head snapped around to the unknown speaker's location, a frown on his face. He had not detected their arrival, how? He didn't detect anyone else, only the women. What this meant was the person approaching him either hid under a very advanced concealment spell, or in light of the impossibility before him, was something far, far__ _worse than some rogue huntresses (acting under Ozpin orders or not_ ).

Taiyang breathed in deeply, readying himself to fight for his own life and those of his children.

Slowly, a figure came into his view from the thick foliage, still clapping despite the bushes making no extra sounds. Whoever he was, he honestly thought this interloper was an average looking middle aged gentlemen, wearing clothes that seemed to belong to another century. Or rather, if Taiyang's assumption was correct, another millennia.

"I had feared" he began, again in that weird accent. "That there were no more decent combatants left in this era, but it seems that I was wron-!? "

 _In that exact moment the Xiaolong Patriarch felt someone else nearing the house, from the other side of his property. This was unacceptable_.

Shuffling back to his earlier mood, he spat out a single word of power; immediately the invisible chains binding him were sheared in twain. Ripping his arms up, two fireballs encircled his hands in a miniature inferno. A muffled grunt was his only indicator of throwing the barely contained energy, the fires hitting both Cloud and Cross in their chests. It was a messy yet quick death, freeing their bodies from the Drakid's unholy clutches.

The Drakid wasn't idle; he used the split second time Taiyang gave him to transform into his actual form. Hands turned into long hideous claws, made to inflict equally hideous injuries and painfully slow deaths. Skin and clothes were replaced by black scales, seemingly impregnable amor which effortlessly drank in what little light was present. Large dark wings spouted from his back, together with a tail of equal color below them. Finally the face contorted, the nose and mouth jutting forward to form a grinning snout.

Lashing out these claws scratched across his Aura, forcing him back although not by much. Taiyang didn't wait to fight this creature, he was turning to run as fast as he could possibly move. Fear drove him forward, but not for himself.

One hundred meters. That was the distance between the newcomers and his house. Till they reached Ruby and Yang. He had maybe five seconds, judging from their speed. In layman's terms, he had no time for this shit here.

Holding his right hand sideways, he screamed a lightning fast summoning chant in his head, creating a golden circle of light in his grip. Driving said hand forward, he flung the forming weapon ahead to meet the Drakid's next attack. Claws faced off against a massive two bladed golden battleaxe he summoned.

Gold met black, and without showing down, his ethereal yet unstoppable axe carved right through claws, scales, flesh, and bone. Dark blood sprayed through the air while the Drakid opened it's mouth to scream, an opportunity Taiyang seized. His left hand left the golden haft to surge forward, grabbing the monster's face. The very next moment a miniature sun exploded in the dark, as unimaginably hot liquid fire escaped his hand, pouring over the beast and crawling into its body through all orifices in sight. Letting go of the monster burning up from the inside, he turned around and began dashing towards his house. His throat clenched when he rechecked the home's status.

The strangers had reached it.


	4. Merry christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.

I'm happy to announce that the hiatus for this story is over.

Long story short i had some problems health wise which was the reason i didn't update for so long. Luckily my condition is now treated and i'm finally at least somewhat fit again. Which means that i'll finally will be able to write again.

Here's a little teaser for the next chapter:

"Mmh? Yang what's the matter? Why did you wake me up? I had a wonderfull dream about cookies and plushies and - yang?"

"It's nothing Sis, we..., we are going for a little trip okay? Right now, just us two. I'll even pull you on a cart so that you can still sleep a little and you don't have to walk to much okay?"

"Kay."


	5. Chapter 3

Chapter 1

 **Now let´s start with the obvious stuff and it´s been a while. I was busy dealing with depression. You know how I told you guys that I was feeling better because of some medicine i´m taking? Well let´s say at least i´m capable of walking again, for a time. But the medicine isn´t working perfect and well the realisation that i´ll probably will never be able to use my legs like I used to earlier for the rest of my life was very hard to come by. Add to that that i´m job seeking (and the fact that I couldn´t walk at all the 9 months before christmas didn´t particularly help in that regard) and now i´m basicly limited to jobs were I have to at most be standing/ walking /strain my legs not more an hour a day and that is restricting me to fields of work which I well didn´t originally intend to work in. That and the general shittyness of my situation well didn´t particularly leave me in the mood to write stuff.**

 **Now my beta writer can no longer beta for me because of workshifts on his parts and also I hadn´t been writing for some time and need to retrain myself in it so my stuff will be not quite on the quality of the last chapters but i´m doing my best.**

 **And since I can´t just leave you with an authors not again have this teaser as a preliminary easter gift (though I hope I can get the actual chapter out at eastern)**

Dragonborn2704: **Don´t worry I don´t intend to give up on this story any time soon, I spent no joke years thinking out plotlines, characters, twists, new semblances and all that tralala (there will be** **major** **differences to canon rwby) so yeah definitely plan on continuing this**

Ruby let out a groan as she woke up. She was cold, in fact it had been that what had awoken her. She didn´t want to wake up, she had been dreaming of totally adorbs puppies and cookies. Why was it so cold? Did Yang forget to close the Window again?

The red haired little girl cuddled herself more into her blanket. That didn´t sound at all like Yang, she sure hoped that her sister now didn´t also start acting weird, like Dad.

Daddy had spent the last days switching from standing around with such funny look in his eyes that reminded her a bit of how mom and he looked when they were telling her and sis of their adventures as later from what mom did after she had become a Paladin. Of the cities and towns she had saved as well as from various little fortunes and missteps she had one her different stories funny.

On Yang´s insistence they even told her about that time some people, "nut-jobs" as Dad had called them (which had caused mom to wack him on the had and than had her swear to not repeat it elsewhere. Apearently it was a bad word though Ruby didn´t understand how a word could be bad). Anyway, these Guys had thought Summer as somekind of Goddess and had taken Yang from them while they had been busy. Both Mommy and Daddy had locked very angry at that, but Ruby didn´t understand why. From what Yang had told them they brought her to some place underground, what had been a bit creepy but they were really friendly afterwards. They had showered in glowy golden things, stuff like golden chains and really pretty stones while constantly bowing towards Yang what sounded awesome!

Though Ruby was fairly sure that Yang had exagerated a lot of that.

She shivered as another cold gust of wind passed over here. It was really cold. And since Yang appearently couldn´t be bothered to close the window she would do it herself, despite it being really really hard to get up there. Stupid Yang, for that she wouldn´t share any of her morning cookie with her sister. Ha that sure will show her!

Also since when was her bed this hard? And was she moving?

She slowly rose up opening her eyes blinking some tears away that the cold air had caused. She was in a cart, her old red one, which summer had always used to drive her around in! Ah the memories… She yawned again, her body screaming at her to return to sleep. To go back to dreams of cookies and strawberries. But halt! Why was she in the cart? Was this some sort of dream inside a dream? Like in that really confusing movie she and Yang had watched? When mom and Dad had been busy doing the noisy stuff in their room. What had the movie been called again?

It had been about some huntsmen who had the semblance to enter other peoples dreams and find out information and kick evildoers butts. And had had some really nice sidekick (every hero needed a sidekick after all) and there had also been a really cool huntress involved and they had been fighting cookie monsters and meet talking dogs and wait no that was stuff from her dream, she had fallen asleep sometimes in the middle of it.

And why had the cart stopped moving?

" _ **Oh my? What have I found here?"**_


	6. Chapter 4

Yang gripped Ruby harder as they were dragged along. The left half of her face burned, as if it was on fire. She attempted to resist for a moment or two when the women took them, but she had effortlessly overpowered her, and then delivered a slap. Not a playful slap like what she and Ruby did when they were fighting with one another, but a real, actually painful slap. Her neck had cracked from the sheer force behind the blow and she had been thrown to the ground.

When she touched her cheeks afterwards, she felt another explosion of pain, caused by her fingertips making contact with the raw flesh. Drawing her hand away, she looked at the glossy blood staining her fingers and cried out.

After that, the woman looked for a moment as if she was actually going to kill her, but Ruby, who woke up at that point, had jumped between them. What a sight, a tiny little girl yelling something about not hurting her any longer. The woman seemed bemused for a moment before she looked directly into her little sister's face, and then flinched back as if she had been punched.

It was almost as if she was afraid. After that, something truly terrifying happened.

The woman... she changed. And not in a metaphorical way; Her entire body morphed like water, growing out scales, wings and tails. Cracks and weird squishing noises joined her body's shifting, sounds that made her want to puke. It was this moment when Yang realized what stood before her.

She heard about this thing in some of Uncle Qrow's fairy tails, during one of the few times he had been tasked with babysitting her and Ruby. Yang was sure that he had been drunk from the stuff he was always drinking, because she didn't think he had been supposed to tell them that story. That at least was the impression she got from how Summer and Dad had yelled at him when she as a result had gotten nightmares and wasn't able to sleep.

He told her about the Drakid, horrific things that clad themselves in human form to conceal their true demonic selves. Beings that only sought to bring death and pain. How their family had used to fight them, and what they did to those who they now one had taken Ruby and her, and it was all her fault.

She felt as if she was about to puke.

„Now, now children." She opened a mouth for a bone chilling fangs filled smile. „We don't want to wait. Today's fun is awaiting us."

Before she or Ruby could act, she surged forward.

….

Sweat started to sweep down Qrow's faced as he struggled to keep up, and at his side he could her Peach groan. Long lines of runes, glowing a brilliant emerald, covered her from head to toe. Speed magic was normally nothing to her and she could keep it up for days, slowly feeding her Aura into it without breaking down, but even she was strained under this pace.

But neither said a word about slowing down, as they both knew that it would be only wasted energy. And neither wanted to anyway.

Before them was Tai. Using neither magic nor Semblance, he was plowing through the forests and landscape at a speed even they weren't be capable of matching. No signs of slowing down or even exhaustion showed on his part, he just kept going.

Tai was drunk off his ass like them; he downed thrice the alcohol Qrow and Peach consumed together, and by the time the Branwen slipped into a one night coma he was still going at it. His last thought before passing out was wondering if they'd run out of booze before he was done.

The next morning Tau kicked him off his couch where found him slumped over the back. Only after Peach replayed the hyper fast dreams of his most embarrassing incidents during their time in Beacon did he get up, entering a state that one could optimistically call wakefulness. And yet, the moment he heard that his children were gone he had jumped into action.

And before them Tai charged on. Something far more powerful than magic or bird wings was driving him to these speeds, the love and concern of a grieving father, who had already lost a member of his family. Salem herself wouldn't be able to stop him from finding and saving his two children, and annihilating the bastards who had taken her.

Qrow smiled, a somewhat difficult task with all these feathers in the way. Pushing more Aura into his wings, he continued to race forward, and besides him he could see Peach doing the same with her magic. Neither of them had any desire to be left behind by Tai, and miss the chance of getting their hands on the kidnappers. When that happened, may the gods have mercy on those fools, for when they caught up with them they wouldn't.

…

Yang's world span as the ground came ever closer. Her belly and chest were covered in the remains of her last meal, as she had barfed multiple times during their flight. Honestly she was sure that the only reason why she stopped puking was because everything that she could vomit was already out.

Her ears rang, her eyes were burning and aching. The girl's entire body felt as if a hand was pounding her, and she felt tears were running down her face. Besides her, as much a captive of the monster as her, was Ruby. Her little sis was in an even worse shape and fell unconscious some time ago. She didn't know when, having been busy keeping herself awake.

Her entire back felt as if it was sheered off by the Drakid's rough hide, her clothes ripped at multiple points while her chest sported multiple bleeding cuts from when the monster adjusted her hold on them.

Yang's world seemed to darken as their kidnapper began to rapidly slow down in preparation of approaching the ground. Ruby's limp form was crushed against her side and she felt the pressure force the air out of her lungs. She ripped her mouth open, trying to ignore the disgusting taste of the evening food and night snacks, attempted to breath in as deeply as she could.

That intake of air transformed into a mix of a panicked scream and a shrill shriek, as she suddenly plummeted downwards.

Pain, like a white hot lance of fire, shot through her left leg that came up first, followed by a similar sensation. She stumbled forward to crash face first, and everything went dark.

….

Like a visceral sensation, a certain feeling was exploding through her conscious, one she couldn't quite fathom. She felt similar back when she had lied in bed, her head practically splitting apart from pain. Summer had later explained to her that she had some illness which caused headaches.

She did not remember what it was called, just that everything had hurt. The tiniest of noises, the smallest of movements, the quietest of noises, all had hurt. She recalled that she hadn't been able to move at the time. It was the most hideous thing she had ever experienced in her life. This was worse.

So, oh so much worse.

She tried to open her eyes, but they were too heavy. As much as she tried she just couldn't see. She then tried to raise her arms to force her eyelids open, but she couldn't. Her arms didn't respond and there was just pain. Her efforts finally succeeded in opening one eye for a bit, the other remaining closed. What she saw was bizarre.

Everything was broken up. She saw blurred clusters of colors moving around her in an equally blurred environment, nothing making sense.

Someone was moving before her. Something with overwhelmingly red color schemes.

„Ruby!" The words barely left her mouth as she surged, or rather fell forward.

Her head cracked against something hard and sharp. The moment her face made contact, she felt a new sensation set her face aflame. Howling in pain she was harshly shoved back, before crashing on the ground with the backside of her head.

Coughing endlessly, she thought of simply staying there. No standing up, just lie there and sleep. She was tired, so very tired. Everything hurt and she just wanted to sleep.

„Y -yang!"

A single word, spoken so silently that she barely heard it, caused her to snap out of her drowsy stupor.

The red color schemes were moving towards her, and within but a moment she was besides her.

Putting on a brave smile, Yang reached out with the still functioning arm. „Don't worry Rubes… I'll get you out of her, i promise this for you as your big si-„

The tips of her fingers brushed against hard rough scales.

„Ruby?"

Something rope-like wrapped around her waist and pulled her up. Additionally, two scale encrusted arms hugged around her, one resting on her hair and one on her shoulders. Sharp edges rent new cuts on her already abused skin without her noticing.

She felt sudden absolute clarity, as something else pressed itself against her chest. Every hair on her body stood up in revulsion, and a fear raged through her veins unlike anything she ever felt, even paling in comparison to their earlier meeting with the Drakid. No warmth was coming from whom she was hugging, no kindness was felt from the claws stroking her hair.

She could hear a voice inside her head screaming, no, begging to stop. A voice that sounded a lot like Ruby?

„I'm sorry Sis, but Ruby is currently not here."


	7. Chapter 5

**Authors Note.**

 **Thank you all for your kind reviews. For anyone one concerning about my health can be assured. I had to deal with servere problems with both my mental and physical health, which yeah was the reason for the massive hiatus you guys had to deal with. Well good news. I´ve been undergoing Chemotherapy and yeah it appearently works. I´m in a much better condition than i used to be which well of course translates in new chapters for my dear readers here. As always please enjoy my work and reviews and constructive critiscimn for my stuff is always appreciated.**

Ruby struggled helplessly as she saw Yang collapse. The sickening crunch her sister made when her body fell ignited the nausea, wanting to throw up at the sound.

„YANGGG!" she screamed with all her lungs' strength. The monster carrying her had barely landed and she already slipped out of its grasp, utilizing her wet cloak. Running over to her she distantly heard someone shout, before a gust of wind almost knocked her over.

Shivering, she turned her head around and gazed upon the Drakid she escaped. Its clawed hand stopped only some centimeters from her neck, frozen in place. Its body halted, the creature's head swiveling to where the cry originated.

Surrounding them were dozens upon dozens of the creatures, all were in the process of munching on some- WAS THAT AN ARM?!

She rapidly backed from the eating thing that was now looking directly at her, its mouth red with blood. And it wasn't the only one; all around them Drakid rose from their activities to watch her. Her breathing accelerated almost to the point of hyperventilation as she saw everywhere and everywhere more of them often eating ripping flesh out of the nearest body.

Her breathing was almost at hyperventilation speed, and she felt something warm run down her legs. Tears started swelling her eyes and, seeing no other way, she ran to her Sister who still lied on the ground, motionless.

„C'mon Yang!" She started to fervently shake her. „Wake up! We have to leave!" Looking around, she saw the Drakid move closer. „Please, Sis you can't sleep now, i-its real-ly time to go!" Her demands turned into begging, underlined with sobs as the ring of monsters around her grew ever tighter.

Suddenly she heard a thump behind her. Whirling around, she saw what was possibly the most beautiful woman she had ever laid eyes on. And she was smiling.

The monsters around them all backed away from her, almost frantic to give her room. Only one, the one that had brought them here, rushed forward falling onto her knees before the otherworldly being. The woman set a look on her, the kind she saw Mom gave whenever she or Yang found some pretty stone or slug shell and brought it home.

She made a motion with her right hand and the monster stood up, towering besides her and moving close to the side of her head. She was for a moment concerned that the thing would hurt her. but it seemed like she was only speaking something. Whatever it said, she couldn't understand.

Suddenly the smile on the woman's face vanished, replaced by a look of shock. She exchanged a couple more hushed words with the monster and then literally vanished.

The next moment she was held in the air and stared widely into the dark, slitted eyes of the woman. She was holding her up by the throat and forced her lids open with her other hand. Ruby felt as if she was naked, as if the person before her was peering into the very depths of her soul. Her body was turned, while the woman apparently inspected her eyes from every angle.

The next moment she erupted in loud, tumultuous laughter. Setting her down with with surprising gentleness she turned around and screamed something towards the monster ring in a language that Ruby could not understand. All of them stared in utter disbelief, the emotion so prevalent on their inhuman faces that even Ruby recognized it.

Than they started laughing. At first they started chuckling, making distressing whistling noises from pushing air through rows of teeth, before ripping their jaws completely open and joining the women in her cackling. Ruby cowered down and clamped her hands against her ears, trying to keep out the hellish sound that was coming down onto her from all sides, while crying herself a bit.

Suddenly the laughter stopped, causing Ruby to slowly look up, directly at the now grinning woman.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Astrea Pov

Astrea could not believe her luck! Her she was in her camp, enjoying their latest catches while discussing with her Beta their next stage of action after their recon force met disaster at the hands of the latest incarnation of the most accursed, and now the target of her mother run straight into their arms.

Well not her arms, but one of her patrols. Close enough. Turning around she gave a growled order towards the Gamma in question to show herself. Not wasting a single second the called came before her. Her stature was straight, her muscles and wings tensed. Her form was without deformation, pure of scars, showing her lack of real battles. She kept herself clean, her claws, wings and fangs polished. She appreciated that. Appearance was important after all even when hunting Prey. The mental images they put into the heads of those who survived, the nightmares they inflicted on the general consensus about them was every bit as important as their deeds on the battlefields and the hunts.

She was a youngster though, overconfident, untested. She had not found yet her Zǔzhòu, much less trained with it. All in all, before this day she was seen as nothing more than fodder, to be thrown against the worthy of this generation.

But luck weighed on this scale. Her siblings may disagree with her but she had always found that luck was the greatest of all advantages. And the Gamma before here had apparently loads of it. Well Gamma no longer.

„Gamma Fēnglì de yáchǐ !" She announced, her voice reinforced by a slow approving baritone. „From this day you shall no longer be known and seen as a mere Gamma. I, Alpha Yè Astrea, fourth Daughter of our grand goddess, raise you to a Beta!"

The Drakid before her visibly brightened up at the news, and she could hear the cheers of Yàchi's friends and mates and everyone, even her rivals and enemies, joining in. So massive was her catch as that no one could fault her in this moment.

But Astrea was quick to act.

„Sī liè shǎndiàn!" the Beta looked up. He was massive, almost as large as her and the sole survivor of her old band of Prätorians back in the old days. His claws were broken and what was left fractured and riddled with cracks. His Wings deformed and grotesque. To this day caused the mere act of flying represented a chore to him. He didn't talk much, curtesy of most of his Pharynx being covered and burned with the ashes of his teeth, tongue and mouth muscles.

All in all, disregarding his scars and size one could be mistaken to question why he was the one to guard her, one may even think that he was a rather pathetic sight. One might even get to voice these things.

She smiled showing some of her own teeth. She had yet to experience that someone making it even to the second word. There was after all a reason why Sī liè shǎndiàn was one of eight people who ever went against the great fire Serpent in one on one combat and emerge alive, if not unscathed. One of two who wasn't of a Deity's brood or a divine being in their own right.

„Take three of your choosing and observe the area. Those who watched over the accursed brood, who vanquished our forward party will undoubtedly be searching after her. I don't want to get surprised here."

A single eye motion brought an unsaid question.

„No you will not engage them, just warn me of their coming. We don't know what tricks the wizard might be up and he will undoubtedly mobilize his very best to ensure Tenshi's vessel to be returned. I will personally take care of them should it come to that."

As slim as the chances were she wasn't about to throw her sole remaining Pratorian away.

Anyway, time was of the essence. They had only limited intelligence on the capabilities of the humans of this era, of their heroes, or huntsmen and huntresses as they were nowadays called, and most worryingly their Paladin.

Intel gathered from captured locals suggested this age was far weaker than the previous ones, lacking Deities, Saints, and Dragons, unable to perform the ancient arts and rituals, pushed to the brink by the creatures of Grimm alone. Easy pickings for their resurgent species. At least some of their yet awoken kind thought so.

She shook her head. A folly to underestimate a foe in such a manner. The demise of their advance party served as more than enough prove that the enemy was still in possession of capable warriors. From what Sī liè shǎndiàn reported, who was connected to the slaughtered Drakid, they met their fates in a brutal and one-sided matter.

There was something on the Prätorians facial features, an emotion that she hadn't seen in a while. Her right claw always used to go at things with a balanced and structured mind, always ambivalent towards his task, never allowing emotions to control him. That moment when he showed her the Gamma's fates was a moment of pure and utter ice cold raging hate.

There was only one conclusion for that. There existed only one entity who could produce such visceral rage in her trusted protector, but that was impossible, wasn't it? It was killed together with Tenshi in the last battle, plus she would have felt the heat of its flames even from the island.

„No its more likely an distant offspring, that creature had quite a passion for mating with lesser creatures after all. And one of its brood protecting the silver eyes Family would go a long way towards explaining how our scouts were so easily killed."

She clapped her hands once, the singular sound enough to immediately gather the attention of everyone remaining.

„Pack up! We are leaving!"

She had her target, no sense on remaining any longer and exposing her or the pack to more necessary danger. She sent a quick glance to the little silver eye near her. Transporting her in the state she was would only bring trouble. Especially since her eyes could activate themselves at any moment. And she could really do without that particular pain.

She descended on putting her hands on the girl's shoulder. Astrea could feel her shaking,

hear her fast heart beat, her acrid sweat.

There were multiple ways how she could deal with this little problem at hand. She could simply kill her, as her mother had ordered her or, baring that just gauge her eyes out.

Her claws were already in motion, to proceed with the blinding move but she stopped herself moments before the tips reached her left eye.

That exact second she turned her hand into her normal, if somewhat smaller, claws she had felt something inside her. A flicker of her curse, so minor that any Drakid lesser than her wouldn't have noticed it at all. Ignoring the little ones pathetic whimpers she weighed the implications of this for a moment.

„Could it be?"

Activating her Zǔzhòu for a moment she formed a tiny, yet sharp rods, originating from her left middle claw. In one rapid move she stabbed it into the girls neck. Adjusting her hearing so that her shrieks and cries weren't quite as distracting she observed how her body reacted.

The amount of curse she was pumping into her should've been more than enough to turn her into a thrall, especially considering that she as a kid should neither have the Aura capacity nor willpower to resist really. But instead oft hat her body was almost sucking it in, taking in more and more of her reserves.

Her first instinct was to pull away, but she hesitated for a moment. The girl completely stopped her struggles for a moment, becoming motionless in her arms. All acts of defiance were gone. In that she resembled a thrall, but the way she was drawing more and more energy in? It was changing her body, shifting it.

She could see how her skin, down to the very pores, started to corrode, to be replaced by something else. She could sense how bones started to crack, flesh started to move and how essentially her entire body shuddered by the foreign actions forced on it ever so slowly.

Well they did not have an eternity. Calling up more of her Zǔzhòu she expanded the rod, making it fluid and running it through her veins and arteries, from head to toe, pushing more energy into her, into every millimeter of her body. Amounts that should have killed her in seconds. And yet she was taking it. Was absorbing more and more of it.

The transformation that had already started accelerated greatly. Bones shattered and reformed, skin was going of completely all over her form and was replaced with shining red scales. On her back bones and flesh was shaped and added as wings and tail grew out, though decidedly slower.

Her screams and whines had stopped at some point as she had apparently based out from the intense pain the experience was undoubtedly causing her. Well that made the next part only easier.

She pushed deeper, easily brushing aside what near nonexistent mental defenses there were, reaching far into her mind, forming her young consciousness like mold in her hands. Twisting memories and feelings, disturbing and reattributing senses and norms.

Once she was done with that she reached even further in the most intimate and, one might say sacred, part of this little girl's, no this little Drakida's existence.

Black tendrils drilled ever deeper into her conscious until they reached their final destination. A thin layer of Aura, barely even present at some parts were brought up around the girls, Ruby´s, an atrocious name that she definitely is going to change into something more befitting to what she was becoming, soul. Astrea collected herself for a moment and than pushed through.

The next moment an intense white light exploded flooding through the girls subconscious, burning through her veins and engulfing her entire form. It stabbed itself like an avalanche of crystal shrapnels into Astrea's brain, before she had any chance of cutting the connection between herself and Ruby.

„LEAVE HER BE!" Screamed a voice so shrill it nearly ruptured her sense of hearing. Equally the light reached out spreading through her, tearing into her organs and bones. The Alpha Drakida ripped her mouth open to scream but nothing but blood came out. A lesser being might have died from the shock or the wounds, might have collapsed from the pain, might have been overwhelmed from the unexpected assault, but not she.

Collecting her power, channeling her Zǔzhòu she halted the silvery eyes direct expansion, barring it access to her brain, heart and similar crucial bodily regions while giving up on defending less important ones.

Trying her best to sideline the pain she attempted to push it back, out of her body, away from severing nerves and numbing senses, but it resisted fiercely, digging figurative and literal hooks of light into her flesh and bones using the very force of her counter-push to rip horrid trenches and holes.

Fletching her fangs she swung out and shoved the mangled remnants of the curse tendrils that still remained at Ruby's soul and forced them into the glowing white light. A shudder went through the silver inside her and it pulled out of her wrecked inner body, leaving to defend ist very core, allowing her to slump back.

Extending her Zǔzhòu across the damaged parts of flesh and bone, creating replicates to act as stabilizers till for a later moment when she could properly concentrate herself on regeneration she reexamined what was before her with newfound respect.

Whatever sentient spell or entity Tenshi, for it could have been no one else, had lied over the girls soul had apparently shrugged of the damage of her latest push relatively well, partitioning the infected part of it away from the rest of the soul.

The thin wall of Aura had worked as nothing but an distraction, a way to hid the immensely complex divine magic in plain sight. Now that she knew it was there she could easily recognize it but before it was practically invisible. It locked and structured itself into multiple branches and strings across the girls entire soul, resting there like a parasite, or in this case rather, a protective antibody, replenishing itself using her victims Aura and soul.

She had faith in her abilities to crack it but that would even optimistically take hours, more likely days and would need at the very least that the Girls soul changed on a fundamental level. At the moment she could nothing remove it in short notice outside of crushing Ruby's soul altogether and she wasted to much effort, experienced to much pain, to just turn her into a meat puppet.

Her eyes strayed to the unconscious girl not to far from her.

She was obviously someone Ruby cared very, very strongly for. From what she could have reclaim from her memories, though she had only briefly skipped through them, she believed her to be her sister. Ridiculous. The two didn't share the least of resemblance. But still she was someone close to her and the spell/entity did not guard Ruby's mind.

Killing her by her own hands, or rather claws, should be enough fort he Rose girl to undergo a major change of her soul. It was a bit of a long-shot but it was not like Astrea really lost anything of worth by trying.

With that thought she reached out for Ruby's mind.

….

Yang croaked as her sisters hands, her read reptile like hands tightened around her throat, the tips of the claws shearing her skin open. She tried to say something but no words escaped, strangled off.

The world started to blur around her before switching to black slowly. A massive amount of Pain was building up inside her chest and she could feel how strength left her limbs. One moment the darkness was closing in around before she abruptly collapsed back crunching on to the earth.

Before here Ruby stood, her eyes, her face, every facet of her body showing complete and utter terror staring a her hands, wet from her blood.

Behind her was, slightly hunched, the woman who by now had thrown away every pretense of humanity. Massive black wings, each multiple times taller than herself had erupted out of her back. She had grown enormously and was, before her very eyes, shedding the last of her skin for a thickly scaled hide.

She was looking west, an expression of concern on her face before turning her attention back her way. She instinctively tried to stand up, ran away from her, but her legs failed her. Instead she slid back, until she met something. Something incredibly hard and hot and yet somehow pleasantly warm and soft.

She looked up and suddenly realized, that maybe, it was not her the Monster turned it's attention towards.

She looked up and suddenly realized, that maybe, it was not her the Monster had turned its attention to.

„Dad?" she asked, barely grasping it.

He looked unlike anything she had ever seen him like. Towering above her holding a massive axe in one hand, engulfed in an inferno of brilliant golden, sun like, flames, but that wasn't what was intimidating. Not he look in his eyes, radiating pure, undiluted, all encompassing hate and rage. His face looked almost animalistic, inhuman in a way.

*"Qrow, Peach, take them, and get the fuck out of here. Do not turn around, do not get back to help me, RUN! Because" a sudden grim, almost manic smile spread across his face, "I can not assure you that I will leave anything in this region alive."

Something resembling a black blur rushed towards her and suddenly she was in the air, caught in an soft embrace of muscles and feathers.

„Are you alright kiddo?" It asked with a voice that seemed like it should belong to her Uncle Qrow, not this bird creature.

Wait a minute was it possible that this was…?

The bird-man, Qrow, noticed her lack of answer and how she stared at him and noticed what might be amiss.

„I'm gonna explain more later but for now we'll first look that we get you and your sister home safe." It, he smiled reassuringly. All the pointy feathers distracted a bit but she still recognized her Uncles signature smile, the one he always showed whenever they were playing, doing something stupid. The same he always wore when Summer caught him and scolded him for it.

„Peach, take Ruby and boot it out of here. No, Tai can take care of himself."

Behind him Ruby was lifted in the air by something. As much as she tried to she could not see what was taking her sister and she seemed equally confused. It was not like that she could not see, more like something inside in her refused to show the image of whatever was there.

Ruby struggled for a moment before abruptly becoming limb. She tried to yell out Ruby's name but for some reason stopped before she opened her mouth. She briefly felt a sense of tiredness, before her eyelids already fell down and everything went dark.

…

Qrow stared at the abused and battered form of his niece, someone that for all intents and purposed might as well be his daughter, capturing sight of every bruise, every sprained bone and every cut.

He was angry before. When he had found out how the outside really was like after he and Raven were sent by the Clan to infiltrate Beacon. When he had found Peach, naked, crusted in dirt, abandoned and dehumanized in the wild. He was angry when he had finally made up his mind on confessing to Summer only to find her kissing Tai.

He had been angry when Raven had turned her back on the family she had build up in Patch, deciding to return to the clan that had taken so much to them, declaring him a disgrace for not willing to do the same.

All that anger, all that hate and immersion was meaningless, unimportant compared to the pure, all encompassing RAGE he was feeling at this very moment. And yet something inside him told the Branwen that even what he felt was far surpassed by what Tai was going through at this moment.

He sensed something rushing through the woods towards them, heard wood breaking and earth being crushed in its pursuit.

Whirling around to the direction of where it was coming from sword ready in his hand. The situation was bad, he had no time to unlock Yang's Aura and there was no way she would escape unharmed in an high intensity combat situation. Plus if he dodged here his enemies would be able to attack Tai from the side.

He opened his mouth, intending to call Tai to covert hem while they ran away but and massive crack interrupted him, immediately followed by a wand of wind hitting him, forcing him to move one of his wings to cover Yang and to close his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again the forest in front of him was turned into a wasteland, with hundreds of shattered and crushed trees running around. And a good chunk of them was covered in red goo.

Turning around to Tai he saw that the man himself hadn't moved an inch, just the axe he was holding in his hand was pointed towards him, into the direction of the carnage.

Without him turning his head, no movement seen Qrow heard how a single, shaking word was whispered.

"Go"

Feeling how every single feather on his back turned up on hearing that single word he turned around and ran. Only a moment later Peach followed suit. That single moment had made it more than clear that in any engagement they both would only be in the way.

Looking around he could see Peach, who had been relatively calm so far, send him a look full of concern. He could only share a similar look with her. He knew that Tai was strong. To this day he had always thought that he and Peach were stronger than him, especially after he had decided to exchange his huntsman career with the life of a househusband.

Obviously neither of these assumptions were true but if the Drakida were anything like what Ozpin had told them they would be than he doubted that even Taiyang was strong enough to fight an entire pack of them. And there was with near certainty a pack of them here, judging from in what state the area they had found Ruby and Yang in had been.

Wait, more Drakid also made it a possibility for them to be ambushe-!

Suddenly something crashed into his left side forcing him away. The very next second a beam of black lightning split the ground where he was just a moment before.

The sudden bright light blinded him for a second, forcing him to sacrifice some Aura as he flew through some trees in rapid evasive maneuvers. Zipping from tree to tree, branch to branch, he scanned the area for from where the attack could've come from, and where Peach and Ruby were.

Good Gods she was direct behind him!

A short change in the wind on the back of his feathers was the only warning he received, informing him that something was behind him that decidedly wasn't there a moment ago.

Pushing most of his available Aura to his back in split second, before – pain flashed through his midsection as a fist covered in black light crashed into his chest. Just besides Yang's head. The thinned Aura there, while not outright breaking, allowed for arcs of electricity to jump from the deformed hand to his chest, where they raced throughout his whole body. Some limbs were paralyzed, causing frantic twitching everywhere, and he could faintly hear his niece's screams as the electricity jumped onto her.

Almost instinctively he redirected Aura from his body into her in an attempt to protect the girl. Her screaming intensified as his Aura stream made contact, forcing her own suppressed Aura reserves upon the wounds before suddenly becoming stiff, the shock of the pain cacophony and negative sensations flooding her body became too much for her.

Something in his guts distorted itself as the realization hit; not only was he once again failing his duty to protect one of his loved ones, but that he was actively hurting her as well.

Any further thoughts on the subject were blocked out when something with terrible force impacted against his shoulder, causing another row of twitches and lancing throughout his form.

…

„Go."

Astrea watched the Branwen and green haired women disappeared between the trees, crossing the new clearing her opponent created with a single swing of his axe.

Seeing the Branwen was another unpleasant surprise, on top of all the others. When the food they had acquired on their way here hadn't known who or what the Branwen Clan was she had hoped that those annoying parasites would've been wiped out by now. Well all the more for her to do after she had finished the mess here.

With that she turned her attention towards the blonde man before her. Well man was most likely wrong. Whatever species he belonged to he was most definitely not human. What was more concerning was that the intel they had gathered also had not told them anything about him.

That either meant that one, their Prey just hadn't known better or, more worryingly that a creature like him, and possible more like him, had hidden themselves without knowledge about them spreading. That could have potentially disastrous consequences for her fellow Drakida.

„Say," she smirked. „What are you? The brood of some god or Dragon or one of the wizards more successful experime-„

Only by throwing herself aside at detecting the start of movement in her opponent she was able to dodge the golden flash of the weapon as it tore through the ground on which she was just a millisecond earlier. The pure force behind the strike burst the earthy crust bellow them open, felling trees left and right in an ever expanding shockwave, while engulfing the entire area in a massive cloud of dirt, earth and shrapnels of the shattering wood.

Time slowed down to almost an halt as wiped her arm around to ram her elbow into the exposed side of blondies head, as the man had, overtaken by the power of his own attack, been pulled a bit forward. A flash of pain raced through her arm when her elbow connected, with multiple improvisatory closed inner wounds below her scales and inside her muscles snapping open again.

The sheer power behind the blow however was enough to force her attacker back a couple of inches, enough for his followup blow to again barely miss her. Sensing movement to her left, she brought her arm up, just in time to block an absolutely vicious punch that sent her barreling though nearest line of tree stumps.

Not wasting any time she rolled aside, and not a second too late as the blond guy's axe plummeted into the earth where she just was, the strength behind it splitting the ground in two in a thunderclap.

Capitalizing on the strength between the resulting shockwave, she allowed herself to be launched into the air. Using the quarter of a second available while something resembling a golden blur rushed towards her, she let go of her Zǔzhòu for a moment, allowing it to burst through her body. With almost lightning speed, her true form exploded into reality. Weak skin and flesh was replaced by a super condensed mass of scales and muscles.

"Tell me," she held out her claw directly in the way of the golden blade, now moving almost painfully slowly towards her. Judging from how his eyes widened, he was clearly hearing her, despite the high speeds he was moving at. "You know what I did to those two little ones, d- "

The rest of the sentence was scrambled by a pained yelp, as the axe buried itself through her hide, skin and flesh until it halted deep in her bone, having moved through half of her hand's steely flesh. His own hand, having abandoned even a pretense of looking remotely human, shot up to snatch her face, the edges of his fingertips digging into her skull.

"Yes. And for that I will kill you."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 6**  
 _Well here´s the new chapter. As always your opinion an criticismn of it are highly welcome as it helps me become a better writer. Shoutout to_ _Hapless Anon_ _for his work as a beta and for being a great friend._

Qrow threw himself aside, barely dodging the arc of lighting tearing through the environment left to him, shredding trees and stones. Even the flames born from superheated bursts of energy ripped darkened trenches of destruction through earth and forest. The burst of bright light barely passed by and the Drakid was already before him, delivering a brutal kick against his chest, sending him flying once again. Pain flashed through his body as a spark, jumping at the connection between them, burning through his Aura as if it wasn't there, and sending incredible pain throughout his body.

Roaring and thrashing like an animal in horrific agony, he pushed past the seemingly living lighting pulsating through his body, regenerating scorched nerve endings and burned veins. A quick reorientation of his body's broke up his nerve signals, in order to bring the spasms under control that held his body in their merciless grip. And like that, he was again almost semi combat ready. His form was covered in splotches where feathers, skin, muscles and flesh were turned into black charcoal, fried by the unbelievable painful attacks his enemy gave out. The spot his chest was a new one, caused by short touch of his body with the monsters scaled hide. It was insignificant compared to the others.

Most of his right shoulder lay open, skin, feathers and flesh burned. Where it had scrammed the most outer edges of the lighting pulse, everything to his bone was eradicated. He had to invest every bit of control over both his Aura to stop it from beginning to heal the gruesome wound, not to waste it as that bit of Aura could be what was needed to wards of an maybe life ending blow, to stop the glancing hit that would send the final spark to end his heart and use all the experience he had accumulated in almost one and a half decades of service as a high class huntsman, Paladin and secret operative of Ozpin to not fall unconscious from the pain and shock right there.

Numerous pain- and shock suppressers, inserted in several remote capsules inside his body had already spread their poison, activated by Qrow using his Aura. The powerful substances made by various pheromones and substances found in nature and additional even more effective ones created and tinkered together chemically in various labs across, did little to fight the pain, or at least it felt that way to the Branwen. Truth be, without them as well as the multiple performance enhancing drugs he'd probably be dead in somewhere in the bushes, torn apart by blades of electricity.

Not that it would help him all that much in the long term even if he was to survive this one-sided beatdown and somehow managed to escape. When the capsule was injected the doctor in question had told him that he should only use them in the most dire of consequences. More than one or two would lead to severe addiction and withdrawal problems later on, more than three or four would see him suffer lifelong consequences. He already opened four, just to keep the pain at levels that left him semi-combat effective.

He would be lucky if he saw the next hour.

Before him stood his foe engaged in a deadly dance. The Drakid's opponent was the invisible even to Qrow's eyes. Well, invisible was the wrong word; he could see blurs of her, how leafs and cracked wood splitters were wiped away by her movements, in fact he could even acquire looks of Peach's body and manage to lock them deep within his mind before the memory faded out of existence.

She was a embroiled in the furious green light of her Aura, swinging the curved, chainsaw dagger that served as her main method of dealing decapitating havoc against whatever she thought.

Behind her was Yang, her trembling and frighted eyes locked in terror at the monstrosity that had beaten him so profoundly.

She was surrounded by a cage of black, somehow solid lighting, constantly twitching and jumping, evaporating everything that came in contact with it. Everything in him screamed to rush forward, to save his niece, the girl that was like a daughter for him, that he had witnessed growing up, that he had hold when she was but a baby, having been abandoned by her mother. He wanted nothing more than sweep her up and rescue her from this nightmare. But he couldn't. He had no way to break through the cage.

A deep pain, far deeper and all encompassing than the ache of his gaping wounds blossomed in his very soul, originating from a sole look at Yang. The sheer terror in her features, the frantic tremors, that expression in her eyes, one he had seen in far to many faces of far to many children, brought him despair.

That bastard would pay.

Pressing through the agony of his injuries he stood up. He saw from the edge of his eyes how Peach was hit and launched back. The monster had apparently managed to completely look through her semblance, a feat that so far only Summer, Ozpin and Tai had ever achieved. Somewhere in the back of his mind something told Qrow that the Drakid being able to do something that only the three most powerful individuals he ever meet, one of which was an immortal wizard and the other the direct descendant of a Goddess, ever had managed should concern him should have him act cautious.

In him two capsules snapped open, cracked by small precise Aura bursts.

He did not care. His opponent could be Gods themselves and that would not stop him from saving his niece. Nothing, not deities and magic will prevent him -another capsule shattered-, not his body falling apart and not even his death would stop him from annihilating the Bastard responsible and if he had to rip him limb from limb to do that.

Again the voice in his mind declared that releasing anymore of the twelve vessels of enhancers inside him will result in his death. He acknowledged it and decided he did not care.

It had hurt his niece, it had hurt his little girl. It will pay. That was just the natural conclusion of things as far as he was considered.

The world around him slowed down. He was already used towards seeing things in slow motion, especially when he was fighting in true form like he was now. Qrow was the veteran of many, many fights. He was used towards getting shot, mauled, partially gored and incinerated. He was stabbed, sliced open and impaled. He was one of the top huntsmen of this era, definitely under the top ten or twenty. He had developed a certain sense, almost instinctual, that gave him insight into how skilled an opponent was.

It was just a question of reading an opponents features, his stance and his movements. Things learned in a decade of black ops missions and the harshest of trainings and hardships. It was hard for him to notice before but with his chemically heightened senses he could see the bastard was holding back. Every punch slowed just a bit down before making impact. Every swing itching just some millimeters sideway turning devastating blows into scrams. Every burst of lighting fired missing just to the extent that after sparks burned into him or Peach but never so aimed that it would tear them apart. The Drakid was strong, stronger than anyone and everything Qrow ever encountered with the possible exception of Tai and Summer.

He fought that with his strength he could allow himself to hold back while fighting them, to play with his food, just because they were weaker. Just because they couldn't protect those they held dear.

Another capsule shattered.

The world around him broke into a brilliance of light. Every zone, every piece of scenery before him became monotone and colored, black and white, red and yellow, silver and gold as everything, truly everything in him totaled his attention onto the monster.

He was holding back and the Brawen would make sure that he would realize his error, in the last moments of his life.

Air and sound formed tunnel around him as he pressed forward. He felt some beaker tweaks of protest, elicited from his mangled body, the pain being barely noted under the hazing cloud drowning out everything in Qrow's mind but this one sole objective. His sword began, painfully slow, to shift into its scythe form while he pressed his arms up in preparation for a mighty strike. He huffed in heavily registered anger as his arms responded in an equally slow manner. In general it felt as if he was moving through a thick wall of mud, having to invest unknown strength to even be able to move forward at remotely satisfiable speeds.

Everything stood still while he moved. The fire of burning trees, pulsating in sick unnamable color scheme was basically frozen in place, even the lightning that was flashing out of the Drakid's body and moving towards an now to him fully visible Peach was trekking along comfortable, stretched out and wringing around itself multiple times.

The sounds produced by the one-sided battle, the scream of crashing wood and fleeing animals, sensations he had concentrated on and blocked out before simply ceased, not one syllable reaching him. Letting out what he had hoped was a carnal scream as he dragged the finally erected scythe down, in one deadly, heaving attack, the blade shimmering in the enhancing light of Qrow's Aura intent on splitting the fuckers back open, gutting him like a fresh fish.

Calmly, as if without a care in the world, the reptilian stepped aside, observing the reaper's lethal blade harmlessly sail past him. His eyes for a brief moment met Qrow's and even through the walls and barriers that the drugs had heaved on his perception Qrow could still clearly see one thing in his slitted orange pupils.

Joy.

The opponent had the time of his life fighting them.

The realization of this fact did in fact for a short Moment baffle the Paladin, the Sheer ridiculous of It hard to accept before that was replaced by despair. He could Not defeat this Monster. He couldn't, Peach couldn't Not even Ozpin or Tai could!

For a short moment a singular thought entered his mind, one that hurt more than any injury he suffered so far. He could flee, run away and never return, never think of this thing again. He could-

A sound as impossible as it was broke through the noise barriers around him, infiltrating his ears and flooding him With shame. The sobbing of his niece, his daughter in all but blood.

Every thought of flight evaporated, was eradicated and it´s remnants banished.

Even as the enemy casual turned as if the speed Qrow was using nothing more than a snail trying to run someone down he came to this one conclusion.

The iron chains of his own bodies physical limits unraveled and his blood across his body seemingly cooked to the boiling point as three more capsula were unleashed. He was a dead man walking, he was aware of that. The drugs in his bloodstream would kill him, he was aware of that. But honestly, he´d been a dead man this thing had set eyes on him, this way he would at least leave the world on his terms. On the bright side there was hardly a better way to go out of this world than as a badass uncle giving his life to protect his niece. Plus he would have an hell of a story he could tell Summer as soon as when he was going to meet her again.

A single motion, a light tap of his finger basically exploded a wave of shrapnel out of his scythes side gun, hundreds of tiny bullets made out of iron, coated and enhanced by his Aura shooting towards the monsters face, the Drakid in question barely having the time to close is vulnerable eyes in order to protect them from this lethal hail. These milliseconds, where the beast's eyes were closed and its ears overwhelmed, they were an opening, present finally a weak link in his priorly unmatchable defense.

Realizing that he wouldn't have time to counteract Reapers propulsion, started by the gunshots force, he let go of the scythe and lashed out his hands reaching wide.

Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain. .PAIN,PAIN,PAIN, _PAIN:_ ** _PAIN!PAI-_**

Through the encountered layers of agony tearing through his body Qrow managed to close his embrace of the abomination, grasping arms overs arms and smashed a muscled feathery chest into a black scaly one.

It was as if he was hugging lightning incarnate.

Describing the energy raging through him was akin towards describing the raw unfeasible destructive might of a natural disaster and nothing less he was attempting to contain. It was an impossibility, far outside of what he could achieve. But holding him was never Qrows intent, only for him to bind his attention for a sufficient amount of time, enough for Peach to strik-

He was unable to finish the last sentence in his mind as in that exact moment the last crump of the Paladins Aura vanished.

Faster than he could act, no, faster than he could think the lightning surged into him, redirected and reprogramming nerve signals, causing him to open his embrace with doing any even greater harm to him.

Besides the old elite Drakid warrior Peach was attempting to get to him. She might as well have been standing still. Slowly, almost certainly deliberately so, the Drakid rose his arm, the one that was not currently holding Qrow at his throat, crackling with arcane power, sufficient to annihilate her in one strike.

He threw every single last bit of strength he had left against the chains keeping his body stilled, unmovable. He clawed internally, raged and despaired but all was for nothing, his body didn't move even a single millimeter. Unable to even close his eyes in order to miss what was about to happen.

A terrible coldness filled his body, clashing with the boiling blood in his veins sending a dichotomy of negative sensations through his body that he had no names for, pain in a way which he did not know existed and, he realized, never would have wanted to.

He could not even scream…

As he watched Peach, recognizing what was about to happen, made a futile attempt to throw herself aside, while her Aura glowed brightly, redirecting all it's strength to her front in order to somehow survive the onslaught. Not enough.

Raising his arms right about her heart, with Qrow and Peach being unable to act, one being to slow the other no longer master about his own body, the execution began.

Out of his little pinky claw shot a beam of power, black lightning, reminiscent of what Yang's cage was made of, hitting here left shoulder, punching right through Aura, body armor, flesh and bone before solidifying, a motion that was mirrored by a second laser of black lightning exciting his thumb ripping into her other shoulder.

Aura streamed into the area, uselessly attempting to repel the lighting and fix the injuries but to no avail. From his position Qrow believed he could even recognize how some of the energy began to visibly and physically crawl through her veins!

His middle finger charged with Power pointed at her heart ready to unleash the final shot. But in all that the Drakid wasn't even looking at Peach. Instead his eyes were concentrated on him, almost as if he expected something. As if he expected him to do something, to be able to do something.

Milliseconds became seconds becoming minutes, an eternity where he just stared at him. Following one minutes end an expression of disappointment set in on his face before the claws touching his chest also began chirping with the unholy lightning that had pierced his college and-

The next millisecond before either of them could act, either Qrow throwing everything into a final desperate attempt or the Drakid finishing him of something flashed out of the forest ramming into the beast holding with an angry yet startlingly familiar and childish scream.

Like a retreating zip-line, the thing's powers pulled out of the two Paladins' bodies in order to protect the creature itself, while the Drakid himself stumbled back more in surprise than anything. And he wasn't the only one.

Qrow stared unbelievable of what he could only believe was his little niece Ruby. Her body was top to toe covered in ruby red scales, her back showing brilliantly glowing wings and tail, as she, like a tiny ball of fangs, claws and rage bite into the Drakid before here, the transformation process initiated by the Alpha so horribly complete.

The Drakid's surprise however lasted only a moment and already he ripped his arms up to force ruby away, however the terrible destructive energy he had used prior to this on them was gone. Apparently he decided to deal with Ruby with only brute force.

That cost him. Almost as one Peach and Qrow struck; with Peach's arms having been rendered useless she instead forced everything, all of her Aura into one mighty kick against his shins to destabilizing him. Qrow meanwhile, still pumped on the cocktail of amphetamines and chemicals slurping in him whirled around taking his scythe turning around and delivering a brutal strike down on his now wide open, unmoving and unprotected back.

And as one they were repelled, the same black lightning that had devastated them so much already, forming less than a millisecond before either of the attacks made contact, offering an unmovable object to their stoppable force, pummeling the backlash of their own strength into their mauled bodies, causing them to slump backwards, new waves of pain washing over them.

Equally the Drakid managed grasp Ruby and managed to force him away from her, throwing her backwards. For a moment it looked as if he would follow it up before visibly spotting himself. His face, despite sprouting a rather nasty gash courtesy of Ruby's new claws, practically radiated happiness. He gave both him and Peach an appreciative smile and stepped forward towards Ruby, who was hissing almost cat like at him.

The next moment everything, truly everything was overshadowed by a titanic, sky splitting roar of unfathomably volume and proportions before the horizon exploded.

A sudden expression of realization appeared on the Drakids face, almost immediately switched to inhuman rage as every little bit of light in the area, including Yangs cage, covered itself around him and in the next moment he was gone, thundering it massive supersonic speeds towards the not so distant pillar of inferno engulfing everything in its area and reaching to heaven itself.

The fire consumed everything, rushing towards them in an enormous wave of destruction. Qrow tried to move forward to throw himself over Ruby, while Peach attempted the same with Yang, using their bodies to shield them. They both failed.

They both stumbled and fell, Peach having much of her left foot's bones shattered by her last kick against the Drakid and Qrow, the negative effects of the drugs finally gaining the better of him, now that his Aura was gone and could no longer suppress them. The last thing he saw, keeling over, was that the fire bent and form a dome around them, with not even the undoubtedly steel melting heat touching them.

…

Warm. Yang felt so warm. She felt it even through the scales.

There was a vast heat within her and she could feel it. One that she had never in her sister before. Her sister was hardly responding, even to her strong hugs. She looked past her as if she wasn't even there! That wasn't nice at all!

Qrow was lying near them, sleeping. The quiet knock sounds that came from him were slowly slowing down. She didn't know why but that unsettled her. She could hear the same noise from her sister for that matter though hers were way louder and way more chaotic. There was something just outside of her reach, another source of knocking sounds. It was strange, she couldn't see it but she just knew that it was there.

A warning growl escaped her lungs as whatever it was began to carefully and clumsily move towards where Uncle Qrow was sleeping. When she tried really hard it almost seemed like she could see something.

She still wasn't sure that this was not all some kind of particularly bad nightmare, but no, it could not be a dream. Mom had told her that it was impossible to get hurt in a dream and she was hurt. A lot. She wanted nothing more crawl into a ball and cry so much did it hurt. But she couldn't. Not when the monster that her Uncle had been fighting could return, to take her and Yang away again to these horrible things to them again. Alone thinking of how badly the woman had hurt her caused tears to swell in her eyes.

The loud roars and clashes, regularly interceded with massive eruptions of fire or thunder had ended a while ago and she could here how something came closer. It didn't move particularly fast but also didn't make any of the prior noises. She thought for a moment if she should take Yang and leave but decided against it. She didn't think she'd be able to carry her uncle, he was huge and really heavy after all and she couldn't just leave him here. The monster could come, she'd kick his ass again!

She wrapped her tail around big sis' trembling form and moved her still body behind her own. Whatever was over there on the opening also moved, in what she assumed was a fighting form. She herself instinctively ducked a bit down, baring her teeth in its direction, the growling from before turning into an outright hissing.

The next moment it came out of the obscuring view of countless burned and still burning trees and for a moment Ruby failed to recognize it, or rather him.

"Da-?" She had no chance to actually finish, as he crossed the distance between them in an instant, ripped her into the air and grappling her in a hug. She was too shocked for a moment, before returning the embrace, welcoming the brilliant warmth of his body.

"Ruby? Let's go home." 


End file.
